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<\/a><\/p>\nIn the early hours of October 25, 2023, Hurricane Otis made landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, with peak winds of 165 mph wreaking havoc on communities in its path. Normally, people would have had a chance to prepare but just the day before, the consensus of models forecasted that Otis would remain a tropical storm. Within hours of these predictions, Otis exploded into a Category 5 storm, the most intense classification. When the skies eventually cleared, the damage stood at a staggering $16 billion, and at least 53 people had lost their lives.<\/p>\n
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The storm left many with questions. Why did Otis take such a toll on human life?<\/em> Otis made landfall in a densely populated area, and those communities had mere hours to prepare. Why were the forecast models so wrong?<\/em> It\u2019s difficult to pinpoint the exact set of reasons, but one thing is for sure: models are only as good as the data they are given.<\/p>\n In this case, the forecasters were working with limited data to feed into their models as Otis approached the Mexican coast. Ocean temperatures\u2014not just at the surface but down to 100 meters depth\u2014are crucial data for understanding how much energy is available to fuel a hurricane. But in October, in the coastal seas off Acapulco, the forecast models were lacking key data points, with devastating consequences.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Current Paradigm<\/strong><\/p>\n Data gaps like these are the norm around almost every coastline in the world. Much of our current ocean observation data come from platforms such as Argo floats<\/a>, which drift between the ocean\u2019s surface and mid-level depths, and remote-sensing satellites. However, these techniques have limitations: Argo floats only operate in deeper seas, and satellites only sense what is happening at the surface of the ocean. Alternatives that can collect ocean data closer to shore are costly and difficult to scale, leaving large \u201cdata deserts\u201d in the world\u2019s coastal seas.<\/p>\n These nearshore data deserts are having consequential implications not just for how well we protect human lives when storms approach, but also for efforts to conserve marine ecosystems and mitigate the impacts of marine heatwaves and harmful algal blooms. They are also stunting growth in the sustainable blue economy and limiting the potential for the ocean to be an ally in mitigating climate change. While we work to build our understanding of the ocean and how human activities are intertwined, climate change is moving the goalposts and causing impacts that are felt daily and with increasing amplitude. Even well-resourced nations are data-poor in their coastal waters; however, developing countries that are bearing the brunt of climate change face even larger data gaps.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A New Paradigm<\/strong><\/p>\n Fishing vessels operating in coastal waters offer a tremendous opportunity to completely shift the current paradigm around ocean observing. Over 2 million suitable vessels operate in coastal seas, sending their fishing gear, such as nets and traps, down to fishing depth and back up again, providing a ready-made opportunity to profile the water column. The sheer amount of data that could be collected in partnership with fishers could illuminate coastal seas, supercharging efforts to understand and manage marine ecosystems and boost the blue economy. Importantly, fishers and fishing communities, the oldest part of the blue economy, represent a key part of the solution.<\/p>\n Indeed, pioneering projects around the world in the United States, Italy, Portugal, Ghana, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are already engaging fishers in ocean observing using sensors affixed to fishing gear. But taken alone, these inspiring local collaborations cannot deliver benefits at the scale and pace needed to address the regional and global impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Global Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s where the Fishing Vessel Ocean Observing Network (FVON) comes in. FVON started in 2022 as the single global organizing force for efforts to collect ocean data using fishing vessels and their gear and has been officially designated as an action of the UN Decade of Ocean Science. FVON currently comprises 12 committed practitioners, scientists and academics from pioneering projects, Environmental Defense Fund, and Ocean Data Network<\/a> with a goal of ushering in this new ocean observing paradigm.<\/p>\n<\/a> The biggest subsurface ocean data gaps exist in depths shallower than 1,000 meters and these are also the areas where most human activities\u2014and demand for data to fuel these activities\u2014exist. Partnering with fishers to collect ocean data using low-cost sensors could drastically reduce the costs of collecting ocean data, spreading ocean observing capabilities to more areas of the ocean.<\/p>\n