Ocean Acidification Monitoring Public-Private Partnership Launched in Southern Africa

Office of the Spokesperson
Department of State
Washington, DC
July 25, 2016

The U.S. Department of State has partnered with the Ocean Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, and the XPRIZE Foundation to launch a public-private partnership, the “OceAn pH Research Integration and Collaboration in Africa (ApHRICA)” project, to advance ocean acidification monitoring in Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, and South Africa. ApHRICA’s regional capacity building workshop will be held July 26-30, 2016, in Mauritius and will welcome ocean scientists from African countries to learn how to operate new ocean acidification monitoring technology and will facilitate connections to global efforts such as the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON).

ApHRICA was announced at the 2015 Our Ocean Conference in Chile. The program seeks to increase worldwide coverage of the GOA-ON and train monitors and managers to better understand the impacts of ocean acidification, especially in Africa, where there is limited monitoring.

The launch of ApHRICA, through this regional workshop, and the provision of equipment and resources to support data collection and sensor maintenance, will enhance efforts in Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, and South Africa to collect ocean acidification data in the Indian Ocean, filling a data gap.