Currently, European marine governance seems to be undergoing significantchanges. From having been based largely on scientific expert knowledge, restricted riskassessments and governmental regulation, we are now witnessing a management turntowards holistic perspectives, the inclusion of stakeholders, adaptive governance, and coproductionof knowledge—the so-called ecosystem approach to management (EAM). Byusing the Baltic Sea as an example of these changes, we have taken a closer look at the2007 Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) of the Helsinki Commission and the recent organizationalchanges within the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).Informed by a Reflexive Governance perspective, the primary objective has been toanalyse the extent to which institutional preconditions for using an EAM exist in thesetwo cases. Our results show that even though the BSAP has been designed with anEAM approach as its core philosophy, existing implementation, financing, monitoring,and enforcement structures make it unlikely that actual management modes will changesignificantly in the near feature. Changes in the ICES have occurred as a result of aninternal restructuring process characterized by integrative and learning elements. It hasbeen shown that adopting a broad social science perspective and a reflexive governanceviewpoint can elucidate how factors such as inadequate institutional change, limitedcooperation over sector borders, and adjustment problems caused by path dependencycan threaten the successful turn towards the EAM in marine governance.