Nekton’s Launch of First Open-sourced Global Ocean Data Portal

« OCTOPUS (The Ocean Tool for Public Understanding and Science) launched today by Nekton to begin a new era of collaborative marine research and improved ocean governance.

OCTOPUS provides a single source to freely access the latest global marine data. OCTOPUS dynamically harvests and harmonises open-access marine data including oceanographic observations, biodiversity and human stressors on the ocean. Its objective is to support scientific study and decision-making for the improved management of the ocean.

Despite having collected more data on the ocean in the last two years than in all previous years combined, the sustainable governance of the ocean is still being hampered by both a lack of critical data, and inadequate access to existing data. Where information exists, databases at national and international level are fragmented, and often incompatible and difficult to access without a high level of computational or scientific skill.

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