Ocean Month: Discovering our ocean through monitoring, observation, and exploration

A research vessel braves waves on the open ocean. Credit: NOAA

Our ocean and coasts are home to a diversity of life from the smallest single-celled plankton, to the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale. The ocean provides us with vital resources and plays a large role in the climate of our planet. Let’s dive into learning about some of the ways  NOAA is dedicated to exploring and understanding our global ocean through expanding ocean exploration initiatives and increasing our observational and monitoring capacities.

Through exploration, NOAA is constantly learning more about the ocean’s biological, geological, and maritime heritage aspects. Exploration leads to discovery, but before one can truly explore, one must map the seafloor. As of 2023, only 25% of the global seafloor had been mapped with modern high-resolution technology. While almost 50% of the seafloor beneath U.S. waters had been mapped to these modern standards, the nation’s seafloor is larger than the land area of all the states and territories combined. Thus, there’s still a significant amount of seafloor left to be mapped at high resolution.