The EU itself is calling on other countries and regions to step up observation.
“Due to the complicated nature of ocean observation, no single country or region can observe the ocean alone. This must be a global effort with diplomacy at its forefront,” said the European Commissioner for Oceans Costas Kadis at the Neptune Forum, an event on ocean exploration and diplomacy held in Paris on Monday.
OceanEye is part of the EU’s Ocean Pact, a plan to improve the ocean’s health and boost the bloc’s maritime economic and security interests as human-caused climate change continues to disrupt oceanic currents, water temperatures and fish stocks.
In June 2025 the Commission had said that a third of the €1 billion budget for the Ocean Pact would go towards scientific projects.
Some point to the technological overlap between ocean monitoring systems and more tech-savvy sectors, such as space innovation, as a way to explore other funding avenues. “There is a lot of money in the space sector right now [and] in digital technology,” said Bahurel.
In depth, scientific ocean observation relies on “a system for monitoring, describing, and observing the ocean, where we use satellites, measurements at sea, and digital systems,” he added. “We absolutely have an interest, if we want to access the necessary level of funding, to view things holistically.”
Mercator Ocean International is also working to build a European “digital twin” of the ocean to help both the private and public sectors understand how the ocean responds to various events, from plastic pollution to rising temperatures.