International Cooperation in Ocean Monitoring and Prediction: Environnement and Climate Change Canada’s Visit to Mercator Ocean International

The recent visit of Environnement and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to the Mercator Ocean International headquarters highlights a decade of fruitful scientific collaboration between the two organisations. This partnership, carried out together with the Canadian Department for Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), has created a strong connection and alignment in scientific objectives and operational marine services, significantly improving their understanding of changing Ocean conditions, at global scale and for Arctic regions. Together, they have improved global and regional Ocean modelling with advanced data assimilation and cross-validation of information.

This visit, immediately following the OceanPredict 2024 symposium, a landmark event in operational oceanography held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, served to reinforce the importance of their collaboration in addressing pressing Ocean-related challenges.

Canada-EU Collaboration

During the visit, Pierre Bahurel, Director General of Mercator Ocean International, and Jean-François Ferry, Director of the Meteorology Division at ECCC, discussed key developments about their ongoing collaboration.

Their partnership has been recently strengthened through the Canada – EU Copernicus Cooperation Group, established by the Copernicus Cooperation Arrangement signed on May 16, 2022, by the European Commission. This agreement facilitates mutual access to Sentinel satellite data and Canadian Earth observation data, enabling Canada to leverage Copernicus’s extensive monitoring capabilities. Mercator Ocean, as the EU delegated entity for Copernicus Marine, has been tasked with implementing the marine and the Arctic components of this cooperation.

In the coming weeks, both organisations will further enhance their collaboration with the signing of a Technical Operating Arrangement (TOA). This agreement will outline cooperation activities in Ocean monitoring. This initiative aims to further incorporate Canadian forecasting models into the European Copernicus Marine Service Catalogue.

Jean-François Ferry, Director of the Meteorology Division at ECCC, Pierre Bahurel, Director General of Mercator Ocean International, and Fraser Davidson, *Research Scientist and Manager at Fisheries and Oceans Canada,* discussing their collaboration agreement, in Toulouse in November 2024.

Considering a Common Governance

During the visit, the discussions also covered Mercator Ocean’s transformation into an intergovernmental organization (IGO). This change is expected to significantly strengthen its role in global ocean monitoring and prediction, supporting ocean governance and enhancing collaboration.

In this context, the significance of the upcoming UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) in June 2025 in Nice, which aims to continue driving global momentum on the Ocean, was acknowledged. This event was recently highlighted by President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September 2024, as Canada and France announced their intention to develop a partnership focused on Ocean sustainability within the framework of the Canada-France Declaration on the Ocean.