The Importance of Cooperation.
Around the world there are heightened concerns about the environment and the welfare of the oceans. Climate change, greenhouse gasses, collapsing fisheries, rising sea levels, and stratospheric ozone depletion are just a few of the issues demanding attention. Such global issues call for a global response. Only with reliable, sustained observations and the resulting analyses of the world’s oceans can we advance such understanding and predict potential future changes.
The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans exists to further this goal by helping to ensure that the needed observations are conducted and used to contribute to developing better scientific and public understanding and sound policies around the world.
The Importance of Observation.
Recent technological advances have made global ocean observing systems a possibility. We now have the systems and expertise to maintain cost-effective observations in the oceans. Advances in equipment include subsurface floats, autonomous underwater vehicles, satellites with ocean sensors, and new communication capabilities.
Progress has been made in our ability to obtain, analyze, and store and exchange the data and information collected. Even more important, we now have the scientific foundation to use this information about the oceans to improve our understanding of the global environment, marine biodiversity, coastal processes, and more.
Formation of the Partnership.
The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans is an international network of major oceanographic institutions. It has been established to promote the integration and implementation of global oceanographic activities. The network links institutions that are capable of conducting global and basin-scale investigations and measurements.
This Partnership is not an attempt to establish a large bureaucracy or an agency for funding. The institutions’ directors meet regularly in informal settings to review their programs and to plan cooperative research. This dialogue facilitates collaborative consensus on ocean issues among its members, adding greater coherence to the views of their governments and the international oceanographic community within their countries or regions.
Representatives of other academic and research institutions, operational agencies, nongovernment agencies, and similar bodies are invited to attend Partnership meetings.
