Everything, everywhere, is ocean data

Think about your last vacation: the hike you planned two weeks in advance, the fish you ate at that nice local restaurant, and the dinner outfit you ordered online from overseas, which arrived just in time to fit into your suitcase. All of this relies on ocean data: tiny pieces of information emerging from the depths of our seas. They're “the invisible engine which feeds our daily life,” according to Louise Biddle, science lead at the Swedish Voice of the Ocean Foundation. ”It impacts the price of bananas at your local supermarket, because shipping companies use data to optimise their routes,” she explained to us. “And it impacts food security, because farmers choose their crops based on drought and flood projections.” “Something as simple as deciding whether or not you need an umbrella for the day, or as crucial as evacuating before a major storm, relies on good ocean observation,” Ebun Akinsete, senior researcher at the Athena Research Centre, told us. The main driver behind this data is the UN-backed Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS), founded in 1991: a global network of deep-water sensors, satellites, floats, and platforms. They gather and exchange data on key variables like water temperatures and chemical composition, marine biodiversity, surface currents, salinity, and heat flux. Yet international efforts to study and protect oceans are vulnerable to shifting policy and economic priorities. During Covid-19, for instance, the amount of ocean data collected plummeted. In Europe, stagnating national budgets and rising costs of collection technology reduced the number of deployed floats by about 100 units between 2023 and 2024, leading to a 5% reduction in the EU's contribution to international ocean data collection. Last month, the US – the longtime leader in ocean exploration – threatened to dismantle its own Ocean Observatories System, worth around €338 million. Estimates suggest that if such a major contributor stopped producing and sharing ocean data, our errors in calculating ocean warming would increase by 163%. As Phoebe Kounduri, chair of UN SDSN Global Climate Hub and founder of AE4RIA Research Centres, told us, “the ocean is part of the planet’s life-support system. But we cannot protect what we do not observe, and manage what we do not measure”. While experts' outrage led to this plan being reversed later that month, it became clear that the US is no longer reliable for oceanography. The EU stepped in: on 16 June, it announced a €338 million commitment to support ocean conservation, more than last year's €301 million. Two weeks earlier, it launched the observation initiative OceanEye to improve EU ocean data governance and boost new technologies, and an international alliance to mobilise GOOS funding. But that doesn't solve everything. The EU recognises its funding instruments are too fragmented, temporary, and incoherent, on top of lacking private sector engagement. To make sure funding is sustained and cost-effective, we need to build bridges between governments, researchers, the private sector, the military, and NGOs, Biddle explained. While EU efforts are a step in the right direction, Akinsete added, “effective and sustained funding of global ocean monitoring systems requires a concerted global effort. The EU’s leadership will unfortunately come to nought if other nations fail to follow their lead.”