Continental marginal systems are supporting human well-being from important and valuable goods to services, but anthropogenic activity and climate change have substantially altered the oceans and are impacting their ability to sustain ecological and human communities. Integrating environmental, ecological and economic knowledge of continental margin systems, and how these systems may change under different perturbation scenarios, is imperative to understand the interplays between human uses of the oceans, present management strategies of marginal systems, and optimize the services they provide. Lessons learned from multidisciplinary syntheses and inter-regional comparative studies of coastal socio-ecological systems will help rationalize and optimize marginal seas management approaches. This session is aimed at improving our understanding of long-term marginal social-ecological systems, guiding sustainable development of resources and advising governance regimes to facilitate sustainable governance, facilitating equitable sharing of margin resources, and evaluating alternative research approaches and partnerships that address major margin challenges.