Field Safety Is About Power: Protecting Early‐Career Researchers by Transforming Marine Fieldwork Culture

Melissa Cronin
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Melissa Cronin: School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA / FieldFutures, USA

Ocean and Society, 2026, vol. 3

Abstract: Fieldwork is often a defining experience for early-career marine scientists, yet it represents one of the highest-risk and least scrutinized spaces for inequity and harm. For early-career researchers, marine field settings often bring together diverse communities (e.g., on research or commercial vessels or in coastal communities) where steep power gradients, unclear roles, and unfamiliar cultural contexts can shape both safety and scientific outcomes. While awareness of heightened risk of gender-based harassment in ocean-based field settings is increasing, interventions continue to focus on compliance and individual behavior rather than addressing the structural power dynamics that enable these harms. Competence in power-aware field team leadership is a core skill for early-career researchers engaged in collaborative ocean research. Drawing from eight years of harassment prevention training experience, organizational psychology, and lived experience, in this commentary I outline three practical shifts necessary for harassment-free marine fieldwork: (a) redistributing power in marine fieldwork toward early-career researchers, (b) treating field sites as workplaces, not exceptional spaces, and (c) building collective power through alignment with complementary social movements and institutions. Reducing gender-based harassment is one critical piece of a larger project to dismantle the social and institutional power structures that produce exclusion in field sciences more broadly. By reframing field safety as a matter of power, this commentary offers actionable guidance to expand who gets to participate in marine research and elevate its social and scientific impact.

Keywords: equity; gender; harassment; inclusion; marine science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:ocesoc:v3:y:2026:a:12928

DOI: 10.17645/oas.12928

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