The NF-POGO 2025 Scholars Hossain, M., Okyere, O., Diogoul, N., AbouElmaaty, E., Puthukulangara, P., Suhita, A. R., Echevarría Rubio, J. M., Cabiguin, M., Otieno, D., & Alves de Lima, A. J. published the following article in the Journal of Ocean Technology
Accessible ocean monitoring technologies in developing countries: NF-POGO global scholar perspectives on low-cost solutions. The Journal of Ocean Technology
Mullan, S., Hossain, M. S., Okyere, O. O., Diogoul, N., AbouElmaaty, E. E., Puthukulangara, P., Suhita, N. P. A. R., Echevarría Rubio, J. M., Cabiguin, M., Otieno, D., & Alves de Lima, A. J. (2025), The Journal of Ocean Technology. DOI: 10.48336/ktd4-k787
Observational oceanography is crucial to climate studies, biodiversity protection, and the Blue Economy. Unfortunately, global ocean health monitoring is uneven in both geographical and political terms. Over the past few decades, sophisticated continuous ocean monitoring systems, such as NEPTUNE – an 800 km cabled seabed observatory off Canada’s Pacific Coast – have accelerated multidisciplinary marine research. However, such elaborate scientific infrastructure is not financially and logistically feasible in most resource-limited nations. Even traditional ship-based discontinuous measurement of oceanographic conditions is time and money intensive. Across the Global South, significant gaps exist in ocean monitoring data and the tools necessary for evidence-based environmental decision-making. How are future ocean science and technology leaders in developing nations attempting to bridge this divide?
Through a collective lens, this essay draws on home-country experiences of the 2024-25 Nippon Foundation-Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (NF-POGO) Centre of Excellence (CoE) scholar cohort (Figure 1). These ten early career scientists – from Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, and Senegal – have been engaged in impressive projects ranging from battery-powered tide gauges on Indonesian atolls to artificial intelligence-ready Sargassum drift forecasts from a laptop in Mexico. These scholars believe passion, resourcefulness, collaboration, and innovation are often more important than capital budgets.
The CoE, which fosters international ocean research leaders, is in its first year of being hosted by Canada’s Ocean Frontier Institute, with Dalhousie University, the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University, and the Hakai Institute. NF-POGO scholars past and present, affectionately termed “POGOnians,” seek to democratize global ocean monitoring and data sharing by leveraging their worldwide knowledge network. The present POGOnians’ field trials, laboratory hacks, and citizen science pilots could inform a playbook for financially accessible ocean monitoring, offering a hopeful vision for the future of ocean science and technology.
Link for the publication here.