The goal of the 2022 Global Deep Sea Capacity Assessment is to establish a baseline assessment of the technical and human capacity for deep sea science and exploration in every coastal nation with deep water (200+ m) around the world.

In the planning for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, there has been much attention focused on capacity building in historically excluded nations and communities, and rightfully so. However, a baseline assessment of deep sea technical and human capacity does not currently exist. The Global Ocean Science Report 2020, for example, only includes the “45 countries, responsible for 82% of ocean science publications over the time period 2010–2018”; we believe that a much broader survey that includes all coastal nations with deep ocean is necessary.

This assessment is urgently needed so that we can (1) effectively plan and execute programs to increase capacity in historically excluded nations and communities, and (2) quantitatively measure the impact of the Decade on deep sea science and exploration capacity. Results of the 2022 Global Deep Sea Capacity Assessment are publicly available at https://deepseacapacity.pubpub.org/.

2021 status: Continuing, under the auspices of the Ocean Discovery League