We need to change the way we think about what marine science is and what it means to Reef health. These changes need to occur at different levels: how we collaborate across disciplines; what science outputs we produce; and how we translate science into management. In the era of the Anthropocene, human activity has changed the functioning of the earth’s systems. However, in the marine sciences we persist with artificial divides between a blob labelled ‘social sciences’ and the rest of the marine sciences. We need to rethink how we frame our problems and research questions because humans are a variable in every ecosystem including marine. We should also address the assumption that science is a thing that can be used to fix a problem; a science output is rarely a management tool. This talk ruminates on what type of relationship we need between marine science disciplines and across management processes to ensure the continued existence of functional coral reefs.