Oceanography | Vol.33, No.2
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Ocean Science During the Corona Virus Pandemic
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
At the beginning of 2020, the World Health Organization
announced the outbreak of a new corona virus—SARS-Cov-2—
in China. At the time, public health experts issued warnings
about the possibility of global pandemic and that the virus
that caused the human disease COVID-19 can lead to serious
health issues. It was not clear then if the virus outbreak could
be contained and remain a regional challenge as similar virus
outbreaks during the last decade have suggested. The oceano-
graphic community did not take much note or prepare itself. In
late January, I attended the annual meeting of the Partnership
for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO) in Qingdao,
China. Many of us left there worried about the local virus situ-
ation in China, but not really considering that we all would be
in the middle of it six months later. In early February, the three
societies that organize the Ocean Sciences Meeting decided to
waive the registration fees for attendees from China because the
SARS-Cov-2 outbreak was considered a hardship on the partic-
ipants. However, no measures were taken at the Ocean Sciences
Meeting in San Diego to prevent the potential spreading of
the virus. Today, we know that the virus was already spread-
ing throughout the US West Coast by then. No reports of virus
spreading at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego reached
the organizers. We might have just gotten lucky.
In March, the situation changed rapidly in the Western world.
While Asian countries applied their lessons learned during pre-
vious virus outbreaks, Europe and North America seemed less
concerned and not well prepared. By mid-March, drastic mea-
sures such as travel bans and social distancing were imple-
mented. Almost all ocean science was taken “online” and moved
to “work from home” operations. Many oceanographic labora-
tories were closed to visitors, and only essential services were
retained. Research vessels around the globe could not exchange
crews in foreign ports, and most were called back to their home
country base. Dramatic situations emerged, and personal hard-
ships for those at sea and in the field emerged. People spent pro-
longed times at sea, and return travel options remained uncer-
tain for those far away from home.
With severe restrictions on international travel and stringent
health safety measures implemented for seagoing operations, it
seemed the tide had turned in favor of robotic systems explor-
ing the ocean. At the end of April, the Global Ocean Observing
System (GOOS) community launched a survey on the impacts
of the corona pandemic on the global ocean observing system
(Heslop et al., 2020). It became clear that most of the robotic sys-
tems used in ocean science need human support from research
vessels for deployment and/or servicing equipment. The GOOS
survey revealed significant system shortfalls, and further impact
is expected as the pandemic prevails. “Despite its significant
impacts on the ocean observing system, the COVID-19 crisis
can also be an opportunity for us to look at how to build greater
resilience into the system,” argues Toste Tanhua from GEOMAR,
Co-Chair of the Global Ocean Observing System. “The impacts
of Covid-19 have brought to light the inter-reliance of systems
and some clear weak points that we can now work on to increase
system efficiency and robustness.”
More recently, epidemiologists and public health experts are
suggesting that the corona virus pandemic will be around for
quite some time and may only be curtailed by a successful vac-
cine not yet on the horizon. Thus, complex ocean field cam-
paigns have been delayed for at least one year because crew
exchanges in foreign ports are essentially impossible. Moreover,
health concerns on research vessels, especially from exchanging
scientists, have resulted in scaled back operations. Germany, for
example, called all its ocean-going research vessels back home
in March, then almost immediately permitted operations with
reduced science crews. Single cabin occupancy and quarantine
and virus testing upfront are now their standard procedure. For
the time being, all expeditions have to start and end in Germany.
Similar arrangements are reported for some other countries,
but many have canceled all large seagoing expeditions with an
unknown restart date. Long-distance operations to the South
Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans have been postponed, and
the Antarctic field season has been canceled by most nations.
Despite many hardships and setbacks, there are some note-
worthy developments and opportunities. First, addressing the
global corona virus pandemic requires global cooperation. The
same is true for addressing the downturn of “ocean health” and
dealing with climate change or the loss of species and biodiver-
sity. The need to work together is apparent and hopefully brings
back more global sharing and collaboration. Second, by neces-
sity, we have to conduct most of our teaching virtually. In-person
meetings and science conferences have been postponed or recon-
figured to online formats. In principle, these changes should spur
more equitable and inclusive participation around the globe,
reduce scientific travel, and lead to a reevaluation of the way in
which we, as scientists, communicate, collaborate, and engage.