Eyes on the Ocean

You can only understand what you know, so it's very good news that the misunderstood ocean is getting a lot more attention these days.

On one front, the Sloan Foundation has been leading the charge with its Census of Marine Life, a multi-year effort to learn what used to live in the ocean, what lives there now and what will inhabit the ocean in the future.

Here in Monterey, we're involved through our collaborations in the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics project, where researchers tag and track highly migratory animals like white sharks, albatross and leatherback sea turtles. (Just this week they're featuring some cool albatross information from nine tagged fledglings -- including a young black-footed albatross that's setting new records for the flight of a fledgling. It's already flown more than 15,000 miles -- 25,000 km. That's more than most people travel in a lifetime!)

Now comes news that the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) is moving forward with another multi-year, multi-billion dollar effort to create a network of research ships, ocean buoys, satellites and tagged ocean animals feeding in data that helps us get a better handle on what's happening to the ocean worldwide.

It's all part of a larger effort to create a Global Earth Observation System of Systems with the aim of using planet-wide observations of natural systems "to support decision making in an increasingly complex and environmentally stressed world." Planners meet this week in South Africa to move the process forward.

We wish them well.