Environmental issues in the South China Sea call for open data and science

3 February 2021

Although COVID-19 has exacerbated global vulnerabilities, inequalities, and fragilities, it seems it may have also tapped possibilities for science and shared data cooperation among the ten nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Collaboration between Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is not only curbing the health storm sweeping across borders but also from ocean observatories that may succeed in reframing policies in the South China Sea.

Within ASEAN, there is a growing collective realisation that sustainable development should be a central tenet in their marine conservation efforts and that it can be achieved by participatory community science efforts and digital monitoring tools. Just as the pandemic has made the world more dependent on digital platforms for communication and information, there’s also been a developing ‘tsunami’ of state-of-the-art ocean observation systems, from Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Wave Gliders, sail drones, and large-scale image collections. These new tools, including marine image informatics, have created a growing demand for non-professionals or citizen (community) scientists to screen the images and to message the general public on ocean environmental threats.

Credit must be given to Vietnam, 2020's chair of ASEAN, since it has effectively used webinars to communicate co-operation and staged summits to tackle the pandemic, while also seeking solutions to many of the intractable problems in the South China Sea. In this I must declare a point of interest, I was an invited panellist at the 12th Annual South China Sea Conference, held 16-17 November in Hanoi and via webinar, on the subject of ‘Marine Science: how science and technology may impact on the good order of the sea’.

Uniting to protect the South China Sea’s marine ecology

With over 40 million observations of some 115,000 marine species from 1,600 datasets provided by nearly 500 institutions in 56 countries, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) houses the largest single data repository for biological data for the world’s oceans. Given that national boundaries have little meaning with respect to environmental problems, there’s an urgent need for establishing a participatory framework for achieving science co-operation and ensuring ecological security in the seas.

Despite significant oceanographic advances and a continuous flow of ocean data, marine research has failed to ameliorate the competing South China Sea claims nor navigate the sustainable stewardship of ocean resources.

"We need fundamental changes in the way that researchers work with the decision-makers to co-create knowledge that will address pressing development problems", claims the World Wildlife Fund's, Linwood Pendleton. In addressing ocean sustainability, he is quick to add that researchers need to share their data more freely and more quickly so that their work can inform decisions in real-time and enhance the flow and exchange of information between communities.

A focused regional or ASEAN ocean stewardship initiative among scientists and the public offers pathways in which to address climate change, coral reef destruction, biodiversity loss, pollution (especially plastics) and fisheries depletion. It is clear that large amounts of ecological data are required, and that public participation can help analyse, collect, and categorise scientific data to assist in marine conservation and scientific co-operation. However, it’s not enough that scientists have access to remote sensing platforms. The question is, how should marine scientists generate knowledge from all the data swirling around?

Virtual East Asia Summit Ministerial. Image Credit: Flickr/U.S. Department of State — *Virtual East Asia Summit Ministerial. Image Credit:* *Flickr/U.S. Department of State*

More importantly, are they capable of sharing scientific knowledge with competing nation-states operating over the same body of water? With emerging new data, there's an urgency for transparent and open access to science information and to placing this uploaded data into a larger accessible digital ecosystem. The expansion of cabled observatories now brings data ashore through the Internet. Open access of information-sharing in the South China Sea can benefit all claimant nations in the form of ocean governance and fisheries sustainability. The promise of open-access awareness offers an opportunity to establish a regional marine science outreach for a possible Big Data South China Sea science community.

The argument is simple: The South China Sea can become a body of water that unites rather than divides.

Ocean knowledge and technology are more developed today than ever before. Despite significant oceanographic advances and a continuous flow of ocean data, marine research has failed to ameliorate the competing South China Sea claims nor navigate the sustainable stewardship of ocean resources. In this sea of opportunities, uncertainties and threats, environmental degradation remains at the centre of scientific conversation as marine scientists and citizen scientists sound the alarm about how to address issues of acidification, biodiversity loss, climate change, destruction of coral reefs, fishery collapses and pollution - especially plastics. What is certain is that these ecological challenges reveal how claimant nations — The People's Republic of China (PRC), Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan — have a legal and ethical responsibility to ensure that none of their activities harms or create additional long-term damage to one of the most biologically diverse marine ecosystems.

The ocean, a natural laboratory, invites communities, governments, institutions, and scientists, to understand the web of interconnections that links all of us. Fortunately, the emergence of a marine citizen or community science stands at the intersection between ocean science and ocean literacy. Their contributions ensure that nations are poised to capitalise on the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to create an open global data network, especially in the disputed sea.

Marine science has entered the digital age. Expansions in the scope and scale of ocean observations and smart sensors, now lead to a continuous flood of data.

As a result, this provides opportunities to transform the way the ocean is studied and understood through more complex and interdisciplinary analyses and in coastal community engagement in the management and monitoring of marine resources. The improvement of global understanding of our oceans and their value will rely on innovation that removes barriers of access for the marine data needed among user nations. The ocean data networks will ensure co-operative monitoring for maritime safety and forecasting typhoons.

These collective science actions are essential because the focus of policy and research is directed towards understanding the critical changes that are occurring in the ocean systems. In conversations with fishermen, marine scientists, oceanographers and student volunteers (citizen community scientists), there’s a growing bandwidth of ocean data to draw upon.

During this pandemic, where science remains at the epicentre in the urgent production and distribution of a vaccine, there still exist impediments for international co-operation. Even so, ASEAN cannot agree or chart a course to promote sustainable ocean governance. And yet, sustainability and resilience become more important with the pandemic and its consequences make unprepared communities more vulnerable.

Mark Spalding, president of the Ocean Foundation, asserts that the 625 million people of the 10 ASEAN nations depend upon a healthy global ocean. Meanwhile, coral reefs are dying as a result of an ecological catastrophe unfolding in the region's once-fertile fishing grounds. As reclamation destroys more marine habitats, agricultural and industrial runoff poison coastal waters, and overfishing depletes fish stocks, it is no wonder that marine biologists are expanding their conversations and attempting to engage more citizens about the importance of using a rules-based ecological approach to protect the environment. Through studying the sustainability of the biological seascape, marine biologists are rallying for public access to ocean data that can be shared to respond to the damage done to the ‘Global Commons'.

Enter ‘Big Data’ and marine citizen science

Although nation-states take different approaches toward ocean data collection, in general, it's agreed that with data there can never be enough shared. In an e-mail from Dr Peter Neill, director of the World Ocean Observatory, he revealed that the South China Sea is a case in point. He asks what we do with all the data and (available technologies) and how is it applied, first to our general compendium of knowledge; second, to our specific scientific interest; third, to others who may use the data differently; and fourth, in what form are the conclusions assembled and communicated beyond the narrow scientific audience to the public? He adds, “that scientists and their sponsoring institutions are not well prepared to address the latter questions”. Neill, like too many other scientists, believes that all too often, science remains in the computers, labs, and ambition of scientists, and the public is denied access to the ocean data to better understand what must be protected and understood.

Rick Bonney, a visiting scholar at Cornell University’s Centre for Engagement in Science and Nature, advocates participatory research that enlists the public in collecting large quantities of data across an array of habitats and locations, as well as through new technology, in the same way, that smartphones and free downloadable science apps transform the collection of science data.

Because of the increasing imperatives to predict changes, to monitor and to protect coastal communities, marine scientists are reaching out and training public volunteers or citizen scientists in the collection and analysis of marine data that succeeds in broadening the public engagement. With photographic documentation and marine identification tools increasing, there’s been a spate of web and smartphone applications, like iNaturalist, through its iNat 2017 dataset; thus, expanding photographic comparisons of species and trends.

Image credit: Unsplash/Francesco Ungaro — *Image credit:* *Unsplash/Francesco Ungaro*

There are more free science apps for the public to adopt in their supporting role to disseminate science data related to oceans and coasts. Vietnam has encouraged remote sensing and citizen science to fill in the gaps of conventional environmental monitoring methods. In the past, Vietnam’s scientists examined national water monitoring infrastructures but failed to take into account the information received from free satellite images and crowd-based data collection.

Now, there are a host of free science apps and organisations for volunteers to tap into, such as the Citizen Weather Observer Program, the Global Coral Reef Network, the Nature Mapping Foundation, and the Marine Debris Tracker. Available to the public, these digital tools effectively enhance scientific literacy, deepen connections to nature and place and foster new knowledge networks.

The links between citizen or community science and the power of the ocean data revolution are clear, and the correlation between marine technologies and the pooling of data sets helps influence policy development. According to researchers Cathy Conrad and Krista G. Hilchey, “there’s a wealth of community-based management initiatives around the globe”. In their academic work, they reinforce that it’s not just the traditional role as “scientists using citizen science as data collectors, but rather citizens as scientists”. Although the pandemic is regarded as one of the world’s greatest challenges, Earth Challenge 2020 was initiated to gain the global support for public volunteers or scientists to become the world’s largest coordinated citizen science campaign for data collection, and a platform for global citizen science data.

Through mobile apps, people around the world are able to monitor threats to environmental health in their own communities. This new open data platform is making it easier for researchers around the world to find and access high-quality information for international policy assessments like the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In Australia, a coalition of students, environmental groups, universities and scientists are gathering critical new data about microplastics in the ocean and their waterways. The data collected by a network of citizen scientists and researchers enables AUSMAP to create vivid maps of microplastic hotspots in the country. According to research scientist, Dr Michelle Blewitt, "our work enables communities and government to implement behaviour change, regulate the industry and develop better waste management".

Civil society activities related to South China Sea dispute management are politically limited and not openly public. However, Vietnamese-based environmental organisations like the Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment, Mekong Environment Forum, Mekong Delta Youth, MCD-Marine life Conservation and Community Development and others, with missions to solve environmental issues in the South China Sea, have been working professionally to educate all of society, especially young people, fisheries, businessmen, and others. In that sense, environmental advocacy translates into successful diplomatic efforts and succeeds in the democratisation of science.

New marine technologies connect data but not always nations

While ocean technology advances have multiplied over the past decade, including the scale and number of cabled observatories, acoustic modems, and processing and visualisation capabilities, co-operation among nations to foster an open-access digital ecosystem requires more development. According to a Blue Paper report on Sustainable Ocean Economy, vast stores of ocean data remain restricted in the databases of governments, researchers and industry.

For example, China’s State Oceanic Administration (SOA), a founding member of the North Pacific Marine Science Organisation known as PICES, is an intergovernmental scientific organisation promoting and coordinating marine research in the North Pacific and adjacent seas. It was established in 1992 with the United States, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea and Russia. Their goal is to advance and to collect scientific knowledge about the ocean environment, global weather, climate change, and marine ecosystems in the Indo-Pacific.

Dr Sara Tjossem, a senior lecturer in International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, claims that PICES from the outset “struggled with how best to exchange data, but not become a redundant data repository”. In Tjossem’s research, she calls for all "data to be quickly accessible to reflect real-world events and readily exchanged physical data proved easier to share while chemical and biological data were more challenging". It is promising that an increasing number of marine scientists recognise that the South China Sea is a natural laboratory for science collaboration. The mantra is simple: There should be no national borders in science. The focus is to rise above politics and seek solutions on the larger and important question central to humanity’s long-term wellbeing.

While it may be too much to hope that South China Sea nationalism will disappear because of advances in technology or community-wide science participation to ease cross-border environmental issues, the creation of a South China Sea open-access domain awareness model may inspire public good from governments, NGOs, and fishers. All of this will require proofs of concept. But there’s much to gain and too much to lose if we don’t try.

DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.

Author biography

James Borton is a former correspondent who has been reporting on Southeast Asia for many years and is currently completing a book, Dispatches from the South China Sea: The Search for Common Ground. Image credit: Flickr/Loi Nguyen Duc.