Ocean scientists are calling for governments to invest billions of dollars by 2015 in a new system to monitor the seas and provide alerts for various threats such as tsunamis and climate change-related acidification. They believe that improved oversight would bring significant economic benefits by helping to understand and mitigate the impact of issues like over-fishing and extreme weather events. A scientific alliance called Oceans United plans to present this plea to governments at a meeting in Beijing in November. The alliance, led by the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), aims to address the increasing challenges facing the world's oceans, such as rising salinity, temperature, acidity, and decreasing biodiversity. Jesse Ausubel, a founder of POGO, emphasized the urgent need to accurately measure and monitor the health of our oceans. POGO stated that setting up a global ocean monitoring system would cost between $10 billion and $15 billion, with an additional $5 billion needed for annual operating costs. Currently, an estimated $1 to $3 billion is spent on monitoring the oceans. Tony Knap, director of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and a POGO leader, acknowledged that the cost may seem high during a time of budget cuts, but emphasized that the investment could prevent greater losses. In the case of the Japan tsunami, officials believe that the $100 million subsea cable system, which is connected to an early warning system, could prevent 7,500 to 10,000 out of a projected 25,000 fatalities in the event of a massive underwater earthquake. Knap noted that while $100 million may seem like a large sum for installing cables, the potential to save lives makes it seem insignificant. According to Ausubel, new funding could be used to expand various ongoing projects such as satellite monitoring of ocean temperatures, tracking devices on marine animals, and tsunami warning systems in certain countries. Ausubel compared these advancements to the historical investment governments have made in lighthouses, buoys, and navigation aids. He emphasized the importance of addressing current environmental concerns, such as the increasing acidity of ocean waters due to rising carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuel consumption. This could pose difficulties for creatures like lobsters, crabs, shellfish, corals, and plankton in constructing their protective shells, ultimately impacting other marine organisms.