Ocean News

In the “10 New Insights in Climate Science” report series, Future Earth, The Earth League, and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) aim to highlight the latest climate-related research across disciplines for the 5th consecutive year to support policy decision-makers. Future Earth has now begun preparing the 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2021, aimed to launch during the COP26 UN […]

Ocean colour radiometry offers considerable potential for the observation of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Several years ago the IOCCG established a working group on this topic (chaired by Stewart Bernard, SANSA) in conjunction with the GEOHAB international science programme (now GlobalHAB ). We are happy to announce that the report on this topic is in the final […]

The Atlas provides a better understanding of the consequences climate change and human actions have for the planet’s surface water resources. It is impossible to overstate the critical importance of water in our daily lives. Surface water bodies – including lakes, ponds and rivers – are particularly important as sources of water for domestic, industrial […]

SAVE THE DATE 14 December 2020 14:00 – 16:00 – Paris Time The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2020. The Commission was created within UNESCO to promote coordinated international research about the global ocean and its various basins, based on the pioneer experiences of the International Geophysical Year (1957-58) and the […]

YSLME Phase II Final Project Video Launched http://www.yslmep.org/?p=4741 Entitled as “Restoring the Ecosystem Carrying Capacity of the Yellow Sea Ecosystem”, the UNDP/GEF YSLME Phase II Project final video was formally launched on October 19, 2020 during the 5th and final Meeting of the YSLME Interim Commission Council. With the 20-year implementation of the UNDP/GEF YSLME Projects […]

Welcome to the SDG 14.3.1 data portal on http://oa.iode.org This SDG 14.3.1 Data Portal is a tool for the submission, collection, validation, storage and sharing of ocean acidification data and metadata submitted towards the Sustainable Development Goal 14.3.1 Indicator: Average marine acidity (pH) measured at agreed suite of representative sampling stations. In 2015, the United […]

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is set to launch on 1 January 2021 with a mission “to catalyse transformative ocean science solutions for sustainable development, connecting people and our ocean.” An essential Ocean Decade infrastructure challenge, one of ten identified, is to “7: Ensure a sustainable ocean observing system across all ocean basins […]

The Special Issue reprint book “Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Ocean Colour” has been published online and is freely accessible on the MDPI Books platform (http://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/book/2960). The reprint book will be listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), Google Books and WorldCat and is available through several distribution platforms, e.g., Amazon. Furthermore, the book can be purchased as […]

OYSTER 2020 Survey on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on marine Early Career Researchers The EuroMarine early career researcher group OYSTER (Orienting Young Scientists of EuroMarine*) is currently conducting a survey to gain insight into some personal and professional impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on marine Early Career Researchers (ECRs).For the purpose of this survey, marine ECRs are defined as: PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, research […]

The webinar “Co-designing the science we need for the Ocean Decade –Part 1” was convened by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in partnership with the International Science Council on the past 24 Sep 2020. You can access the slides and recording  on the Ocean Decade Website. While visiting the Decade website (oceandecade.org), we encourage you to sign-up to the […]

Explore SOOS’ new metadata portal! The SOOS EarthData portal is hosted by the team at NASA who brought us the old GCMD portal. With 7600 dataset records, it has about twice as many datasets as the old one and is a great place to find data, especially from National Antarctic Programs and remote sensing data […]

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, along with partner organizations, will convene a series of high-level and scientific virtual dialogues to mobilize the global ocean community, foster transformative partnerships and innovative solution-oriented actions under the Ocean Decade. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development will start in January 2021. It will provide […]

Dear all,   ASSEMBLE Plus has recently launched a repository of methodologies for the cryogenic preservation of marine organisms. The Cryomar Protocol Toolbox (download) represents a collaborative effort from researchers across Europe from several marine biological stations, including the Universidad de Vigo (Spain), Sorbonne Université (France), the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS; UK), The University of the Basque Country (Spain), Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ; Netherlands), Universidade do […]

Dear colleague, Capacity Development (CD) is an essential tenet of the mission of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Capacity Development enables all IOC Member States to participate in, and benefit from, ocean research and services that are vital to sustainable development and human welfare on the planet. The vision contained in the IOC Capacity Development Strategy 2015-2021 (http://www.ioc-cd.org/strategy)  identifies capacity development as the primary […]

The hyperspectral satellite mission PRISMA (http://www.prisma-i.it/index.php/en/), funded by the Italian Space Agency, ASI, has the potential to provide interesting data for the ocean colour community, despite the fact that it was not developed as an ‘aquatic’ mission. The imaging spectrometer takes images with a pixel size of 30 m in a continuum of spectral bands ranging […]

The Sentinel-3 Validation Team (S3VT) open call is accessible from the ESA EOPI web page at https://earth.esa.int/aos/S3VT.  In the framework of a Copernicus collaborative agreement, the call issued by ESA and EUMETSAT endeavours “To engage world-class validation expertise and activities to complement Sentinel-3 routine validation activities and ensure the best possible outcomes for the Sentinel-3 Mission“. Since the first S3VT workshop […]

A total of 26 innovative projects submitted via ESA’s Open Space Platform will kick off this summer, to better detect and track seaborne plastic litter using satellites. These projects address different problems, solutions and approaches, from using existing remote sensing technology in novel applications, to exploring new technologies to monitor marine litter, through developing new […]

To all Early Career Scientists in Oceanic Research, In 2018, the SCOR Executive Committee (EC) decided to incorporate an Early Career Scientist as one of the two co-opted members. This is a position that rotates in a two-years basis. The mission of this EC member is to reach out the broader early-career community and involve them in […]

Since 2011, large quantities of sargassum have overwhelmed beaches throughout the Atlantic, harming coastal ecosystems and the economies of coastal communities. Member states of the IOC Sub-Commission for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (IOCARIBE) requested facilitated networking with the sargassum community of practice, sargassum monitoring, guidance on best management practices for sargassum events, and a centralized location for all this information. GEO Blue Planet, IOCARIBE […]

The report offers a distilled look at the state, natural variations, and ongoing changes in the global ocean, and draws on the Copernicus Marine Ocean Monitoring Indicator (OMI) framework. “The Ocean is a central component of the Earth climate system and human communities depend heavily upon the goods and services provided by the Ocean. Understanding and monitoring […]

From Reiner Schlitzer (Ocean Data View, AWI): This is to let you know that WOA18 ODV collections for the “all-years” time span are now available at https://odv.awi.de/data/ocean/world-ocean-atlas-2018/.   The same WOA18 ODV collections are also available on-line via our new “webODV Explore” service at https://webodv.awi.de/explore/. This site provides ODV-like data analysis and visualization in the browser without […]

The idea of the group is to bring together black women to share our research and resources, collaborate, and provide mentorship. All career stages from undergrad –> professor are welcomed, and non-academic career paths are also welcomed. We are about to schedule our first meeting for the end of July. *Sign up form: * https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1chSLhqclJbOEHrkk-0gEp_73bR54BepM133LJW2p54o/edit?usp=sharing Alternatively, if someone […]

Oceanscape is an effort of the GEO Blue Planet Initiative to identify the numerous organisations (including projects, programmes, and other structures) working in the “ocean space”, and to clarify the connections between them (as well as identifying opportunities to make connections where none exist).There are now 74 organizations on Oceanscape. Find out how to add your organization here! […]

Over-exploitation of marine living resources is one of the primary environmental concerns in the Yellow Sea, resulting to low value and depleted fish stocks. This phenomenon signals a number of underlying causes and multiple pressures facing the fisheries sector and industries in the Yellow Sea region. (Article: http://www.yslmep.org/?p=4071 ) (Video: http://www.yslmep.org/?aiovg_videos=yslme-fish-stock ) As early as 2009, PR China […]

The launch of FAO’s State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) 2020 on World Oceans Day gathered >1500 participants. In case you missed it, please find below the six main messages of the Report: 1.   Now more than ever FISH AND FISH products are essential in the fight against hunger and poverty. 2.   Sustainable intensification, adequate frameworks and innovative value chains are […]

In celebration of the World Oceans Day, the UNDP/GEF/UNOPS YSLME Phase II Project, in collaboration with various partners, launched three (3) videos showcasing initiatives and innovations in the Yellow Sea region to: (1) Crack down on the Small but Dangerous Microplastics and Address Marine Litter in the Yellow Sea See video here: http://www.yslmep.org/?aiovg_videos=yslme-marine-litter   (2) Promote […]

OpenLitterMap (https://openlittermap.com/en) empowers you to map and share data on plastic pollution anywhere. Snap it, tag it, share it. It’s like Pokémon Go for Tidy Towns! The data is not just mapped, more importantly, the data is accessible as open data. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_data This is a work in progress that is only about 5-10% of where […]