OCEAN: Defunding Ocean Science & more – 3rd Feb 2026

Ahoy from BA! This is the Rorshok Ocean Update from the 3rd of February twenty twenty-six. A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater.

Starting this week's update, the United States government confirmed a major shift in how it funds ocean science.

On Tuesday the 27th, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA said it is reallocating roughly twenty million dollars away from publicly accessible ocean mapping and assigning it toward surveys that could directly support seabed mining companies. NOAA officials framed the move as a way to modernize seabed data collection, but marine scientists interviewed by the New York Times warned it risks steering public research toward commercial extraction.

Researchers said cutting back open-access mapping could weaken environmental oversight, because regulators and independent scientists rely on shared baseline data to assess damage to deep-sea ecosystems.

That decision also drew reactions beyond the United States.

On Tuesday the 27th, Pacific Island governments raised concerns at the United Nations over the pace of deep-sea mining approvals. Delegates from Pacific Island states warned that the US is fast-tracking seabed mining permits despite limited scientific understanding of deep-ocean ecosystems. Representatives said accelerated approvals could cause irreversible harm to environments that recover extremely slowly from disturbance.

Several delegations stressed the ocean’s cultural, ecological, and economic importance to island communities and called for a precautionary approach that places biodiversity protection ahead of mineral extraction.

And while some countries are urging caution, others are moving ahead without hesitation.

On Monday the 2nd, Japan’s marine science agency JAMSTEC announced a milestone in deep-sea resource research. The agency retrieved mineral-rich mud from roughly six thousand meters below the surface near Minami-Torishima, a remote island in the western Pacific.

According to Gulf News, the test marked the first time researchers recovered rare-earth elements at a scale approaching commercial feasibility. Japanese scientists say the findings could help diversify supply chains, while acknowledging that the environmental effects of deep-sea extraction remain poorly understood.

The debate over extraction comes alongside broader questions about how ocean policy is designed.

On Wednesday the 28th, an international group of researchers introduced a new way to assess fairness in ocean governance. Writing in the journal Nature, the team unveiled the Ocean Equity Index, a framework designed to measure who benefits from ocean policies and who bears the costs. The index evaluates recognition, participation in decision-making, and the distribution of economic and environmental impacts.

The authors argue that ocean initiatives can appear successful while marginalizing coastal communities and small-scale fishers. They say the index could help governments redesign projects to avoid repeating patterns of exclusion.

How do ecosystems respond when stress pushes them past familiar limits?

On Thursday the 29th, marine biologists published findings that complicate assumptions about reef recovery. Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i and partner institutions released a global DNA-based atlas mapping zoantharians, organisms closely related to corals that often thrive in degraded reef environments.

The scientists say zoantharians can outcompete stony corals after disturbances, suggesting reefs may shift into new long-term states rather than returning to previous conditions. This does not mean reefs disappear, but that ecosystems may reorganize in ways that differ from the coral-dominated systems scientists have historically focused on. Researchers say the atlas provides a baseline for tracking how reef ecosystems reorganize as oceans continue to warm.

While ecosystems reorganize, scientists are exploring new ways to monitor the ocean’s carbon system.

On Saturday the 31st, European research teams announced advances in monitoring the ocean’s carbon system - the processes by which the ocean absorbs, stores, and releases carbon from the atmosphere. Scientists working on EU-funded marine observation projects said they have developed new sensors capable of operating at depths that have been difficult to measure consistently. These new sensors will track ocean acidification and carbon cycling in near real time, so scientists won’t need to rely on occasional ship-based measurements.

From sensors deep underwater to satellites far overhead, with scientists widening their view of the ocean.

On Tuesday the 27th, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory outlined new methods for detecting ocean pollution from space. The team described how hyperspectral satellite instruments could identify floating debris by analysing how different materials reflect light, building on techniques already used to detect plastic pollution on land.

NASA scientists said detecting small or scattered debris at sea remains technically challenging, but argued the method could eventually improve global tracking and support faster cleanup responses.

But collecting better data is only half the story.

On Friday the 31st, marine researchers outlined a new approach to using artificial intelligence to help turn ocean data into practical tools for protection and fisheries monitoring. An international research team published a study proposing a practical framework for applying AI across ocean science, including fisheries management, monitoring, and enforcement. The authors argue that AI systems should support human decision-making rather than replace it, and warn against deploying opaque tools without transparency or accountability.

They say collaborative design involving scientists, managers, and fishing communities is essential if AI is to improve sustainability, detect harmful practices, and strengthen trust in ocean governance.

Beyond data and algorithms, researchers are also rethinking the physical limits of ships themselves.

On Sunday the 1st, engineers unveiled a new ship-hull material designed to improve safety at sea. Researchers reported in ScienceDaily that a foam-polymer coating can rapidly expel water after damage, helping vessels stay afloat even when the hull is breached.

The team says the technology could reduce the risk of ships sinking after collisions or structural failure. They are now testing how the material performs under real marine conditions.

And while ship technology is advancing, the wider impacts of shipping are becoming harder to ignore.

On Friday the 31st, Arctic researchers warned that underwater noise levels are rising as shipping activity expands. Marine scientists told Oceanographic Magazine that melting sea ice is opening new routes for vessels, increasing noise in habitats used by whales, seals, and other marine mammals that rely on sound to communicate and hunt.

The researchers said current noise standards were developed for lower latitudes and are calling on governments and international bodies to introduce Arctic-specific monitoring and regulation.

To know more, check out the Rorshok Arctic Update with the link in the show notes!

And it’s not just the Arctic where changing conditions are reshaping global shipping.

On Monday the 2nd, a cruise ship completed a record-breaking transit through the expanded Panama Canal. MarineLink reports that the vessel became the largest cruise ship to pass through the canal since authorities eased restrictions imposed during last year’s drought.

Canal officials said improved rainfall has allowed more flexible operations, while warning that climate variability continues to influence traffic through one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

And to finish off this edition, on Sunday the 1st, ocean policy expert Angelo Villagomez published an English-language opinion piece that pushed the deep-sea mining debate beyond economics and toward questions of responsibility.

Writing in the Las Vegas Sun, Villagomez argued that current discussions often treat the deep seabed as empty space, rather than as a part of living systems influenced by longstanding connections between people and the ocean. He said this framing makes it easier to justify extraction without considering the consequences.

Villagomez urged policymakers to take Indigenous knowledge and stewardship seriously, noting that many Indigenous worldviews emphasize intergenerational relationships and responsibilities toward the ocean when evaluating seabed activities.

To read the full piece, check out the link in the show notes.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

And that's it for this week. But wait, we have an important thing to tell you. We've decided to bring the Rorshok Ocean Update to an end. We've loved doing it and it has been going since twenty twenty-three. Originally, we'd sort of hoped that the listeners could connect and a small community might form, but one way or another, we didn't know how to do that, and it hasn't really happened. And putting them out every week is lots of work and not cheap....so we're just going to stop and focus on the other community building things Rorshok is doing. You can check out our projects on our website. Thank you for listening all these years.We'd love to hear from you, so if you’ve got any questions or ideas, send us an email at info@rorshok.com.

See you next week!