<p>The United Nation’s sustainable development goal (SDG) 14: Life below water is aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of marine ecosystems through 10 different timebound targets. Lack of attention on SDG 14 may increase the vulnerability of many coastal nations, especially in the global south to various environmental threats and impede their economic growth. In this context, we conducted a scoping review on peer-review scientific literature related to each SDG 14 target in Sri Lanka to evaluate their current progress and identify knowledge gaps and future research directions. Publications on SDG 14 increased significantly after the introduction of SDGs in 2015. However, an in-depth analysis of each SDG 14 target indicated that most of these studies were limited to baseline studies likely due to lack of funding, expertise, and limited data availability for comprehensive research. The distribution of articles by each SDG target indicated that studies on SDG 14.2 (Sustainable management of marine and coastal ecosystems) had the highest number of articles, while there were no articles reported under SDG 14.3 (Ocean acidification). Bias in the geographic focus of research, less focus on socio-economic and policy studies and inadequate access to technology were highlighted within the SDG targets. Overall, our results indicated that more detailed and comprehensive studies on marine ecosystems are needed to accelerate the progress of SDG 14 in Sri Lanka. We highlighted that international collaboration, dedicated budgets for marine science research and long-term monitoring of marine ecosystems are key elements in achieving this progress.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>