Ethical recommendations for ocean observation

The United Nations proclaimed a decade of marine science for sustainable development (2021–2030) to develop a common framework that will ensure that ocean science can fully support countries in achieving the goal of sustainable development. Marine scientific understanding is fundamental to managing human activities that affect this environment, and ocean observations have a particularly important role in enhancing the knowledge base of our oceans. With this important task, scientists have the responsibility to act in an ethical way and apply all the fundamental principles described in the Cape Town statement: (a) ethical values, (b) social values and (c) cultural values (Peppoloni and Di Capua, 2017). This article is a fist attempt to highlight the core values applicable to ocean observation, which can then be improved and adopted as part of geoethics and the stewardship of the Earth system. It opens up avenues for reflection on geoethical implications in the field of ocean observation and suggests nine key principles that marine scientists could follow in their innovative research regarding open access to data, effectiveness, compliance with laws, environmental respect and nature conservation, reciprocal relation and cultural respect, equity and fairness, knowledge transfer, governance adapted to socio-ecological systems, and the use of animals in research.

Impact on Science: 3613 papers since 1998 -more than 1 paper a day in past years Impact on Operational Oceanography: Argo is complementary to Altimetry providing the 3D dimension.
Observing System Experiments (OSE) showed that reducing the number of Argo floats has a direct impact on Model output accuracy. Implementing DEEP Argo (> 2000m) will further reduce output errors.
The deep ocean is under sampled. The impact of having deep T,S profiles was tested in the global ¼°system with simulated observations (Around 1200 floats profiling each month down to 4000/6000 m depth). The assimilation of deep Argo observations • improve the documentation of vertical stratification at all latitudes, allowing better understanding of deep-water mass properties (except in the Southern Ocean) • record basin-scale temperature variations (not shown here)

Transfer of knowledge is essential for capacity building and integration
Training is key as it creates and generates a capacity to implement and transfer a set of standard methods or documented best practices. Training is strongly linked to capacity building. Capacity building is essential for developing observations in areas where they do not exist and could facilitate the interoperability of data collected by different people through different means.
In capacity building, the place of young scientists from all countries is important and programmes have been implemented to train and offer access to cruises for early-stage researchers.
The POGO and PIRATA programmes offer seats for joint cruises, and host exchanges to reinforce collaboration and transfer new methodologies.

Animal ethics in ocean observation is essential, as implemented at the Ocean Tracking Network
Ethical issues facing OTN researchers include obligations to the animals and obligations to the broad group of stakeholders interested in the results from OTN studies and access to OTN data.
The main recommendations for respect for animals in ocean observing systems are as follows: Ensure the animal's good health: identify the levels of distress that could be caused to animals by their capture, handling and labelling, and provide means to mitigate these problems; use appropriate anaesthesia and aseptic surgery procedures, oxygenate-air the animals, ensure that surgeons are trained and perform their tasks quickly, use appropriate recovery facilities, and return the animals to the wild at a time and place that minimize the risk of predation.

Compliance with laws avoids source of potential diplomatic conflicts
For ocean studies, it is important that scientists clearly identify obligations, regulations and laws governing access to and utilization of ocean resources under national jurisdiction and/or other agreements including treaties or conventions at the international, regional and national level (see figure next for overview of regulations). Biological data must be treated carefully.
UNCLOS defines zones of coastal jurisdiction, for which states have different rights and duties (1982): -The territorial sea: territorial sovereignty of the coastal state to 12 nautical miles including a right of innocent passage for ships of all states.
-The exclusive economic zone (EEZ): the coastal state may claim exclusive rights for the exploration and exploitation of marine resources over 200 miles.
-The continental shelf: submarine seabed and its subsoil beyond the limits of the territorial sea; within 200 miles up to 350 miles, with sovereign rights on natural resources. The Anthropocene era provides a new framework for polycentric governance, well illustrated by COP21 in Paris. A new paradigm emerges: the "Policy driving policy" evolves to "science driving policy" & "policy driving science", closing the loop. While satellites are the first contributors to weather forecasting skill, surface pressure data from drifters contribute nearly 3% of the 24-h forecast error reduction to global weather forecasts, via the data assimilation in the ECMWF operational system.
World map by anamorphosis of national Growth Domestic Product (per habitant). Northern countries are inflated (higher GDP) than Southern countries.
The key ethical principles in research are integrity, honesty, accountability, professionalism and stewardship (Singapore Declaration, 2011, Montreal Statement, 2013. These declarations set common standards in agreements, communication, transparency and monitoring while recognizing the differences among nations (political, cultural, social and political). All these principles reinforce the relationship of trust based on human behavior. But to establish a complete relationship of trust, more requirements apply such as the quality of the data that are produced together with the information contained in the metadata. The status of data in the quality control process (e.g. final data, (uncalibrated), raw data, etc.) must be clear as well as details on quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC), data processing procedures, including the methods used, referees, third parties involved in any procedure and where they are hosted. This transparency process facilitates the establishment of trust but also facilitates the flow of communication. This flow of communication can be increased in intersectoral and multidisciplinary research, by setting a common definition and harmonization of terms.
Major disparities exist around the world (see figure) and some areas are disadvantaged because they do not have the infrastructure for the adequate collection of information about the local marine environment. The sharing of expertise and infrastructure is an asset in capacity building as oceans and seas are interconnected, local information is an integral part of a global understanding of ecosystem functioning. Equity is an essential component of planetary stewardship, and equity and sustainability are linked (Steffen and Stafford Smith, 2013). Scientists have an ethical responsibility to share infrastructure, resources and data.
Trust is an essential constituent of all social relationships and all societies and refers to both human behavior and to technological expertise. The PIRATA network based on collaborations among France, Brazil and the USA is a good example of building trust (Bourlès et al., 2019). These very different cultures have established a long-lasting, mutually beneficial partnership that has also helped the global community since the mid-1990s. PIRATA has established itself as the reference network of oceanic and atmospheric observations in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, supporting dedicated climate research and operational climate and ocean prediction.
Best Practices can be a concrete representation of ethical values in science as they reflect the willingness of scientists to measure carefully, use appropriate standards, replicate measurements, assess the uncertainty of measurements, and report methods and data for others to scrutinize.. To go further, many actors must exchange and better communicate so that political decision-makers can make the best decision for our Earth stewardship.

7
Surface Velocity Platforms were devised to monitor sea-surface currents in the open ocean, with small buoys equipped with a holey sock drogue centered at 15 m. depth. These buoys all carry temperature sensors, but adding further sensors enables them to generate greater data returns. Applying this concept, the Global Drifter Program started a barometer upgrade scheme whereby interested parties to fund additional sensors on these buoys (see DBCP link below). The impact of the additional data is significant as shown by the pie chart (below).
This assessment, consistent with prior studies (Centurioni et al., 2017), is obtained by analyzing the contributions of the various observing systems to the Forecast Sensitivity to Observations (Cardinali, 2009), in the ECMWF operational assimilation between June 2018 and April 2019 (see Figure).