Can we meaningfully apply the Natural Capital approach in the marine environment? The answer? We can but need new approaches – compared to terrestrial, marine is more dynamic, more interconnected, has greater species movement, plus the depth dimension and data paucity. Key points:

• Natural capital methods have not been fully tested in the marine context.
• Land cover approaches are fundamentally insufficient for the marine environment.
• Greater effort to develop dedicated, alternative methodologies is required.
• The examples that do exist show that data gaps have been a significant impediment.
• Filling gaps in habitat data is unlikely to be feasible at the national scale.

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