The JPI Oceans initiative, Science for Good Environmental Status (S4GES), has completed the first phase of its work and published a pivotal paper introducing a novel approach to monitoring and evaluating the health of our seas. This research, supported by institutional funding through the JPI Oceans framework, brought together 11 research-performing and funding organisations. Professor Aldo Drago, lead expert appointed by Xjenza Malta and affiliated with the Oceanography Section at the Institute of Engineering and Transport, Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology (MCAST), plays a key role in this initiative and made significant contributions as a co-author of the paper.

While remaining on the workbench to further elaborate the new concepts, the time is ripe to start testing an evolution of the current approach adopted by the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), proposing monitoring strategies that go beyond distinct disjointed indicators based on point measurements, and proposing instead process-based adaptive sampling supported by augmented observatories (providing continuous near-real-time data), adapted algorithms and models, aiming to describe the marine ecosystems in a more holistic fashion and, most importantly, observing events and/or changes where and when they occur. This entails a paradigm shift from how we assess the state of health of the sea today, and an approach towards translating the complexity of the status into the status of the complexity as a basis to define GES. These considerations are taking us towards a practice based on assessing change in the general health of the marine environment as opposed to continue insisting to measure its status. 

For more information, you can read the full publication, or visit the JPI Oceans website for additional details.

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