On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 the Lenfest Ocean Program hosted a town hall event during the 4th International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans (June 4 – 8, 2018, Washington, D.C. to discuss a recently funded project – Benchmarks for ecosystem assessment: Practical indicators for ecosystem-based fisheries management. The session opened with Charlotte Hudson, Director, Lenfest Ocean Program, who discussed our work to strengthen relationships between science and decision-making through funding usable science. Then, project PI Dr. Beth Fulton, Principal Senior Research Scientist, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), provided an of overview of the project, and its progress to date on developing indicators for ecosystem structure and function, along with guidelines for applying them in a variety of ecosystems and management contexts.