Every weekend, restaurants along Taiwan’s coast are packed with people scarfing down seafood, and there are usually surfers and snorkelers in the sea. Geographic conditions ensure that the Taiwanese people are no strangers to the sea. However, besides dining and recreation, the oceans are significant to humankind in many other important ways.

Mankind at one with the ocean

“The seas provide humanity with important resources including seafood and minerals, and they also play a role in regulating the climate.” When we arrive in the coastal city of Keelung, Chiang Kuo-ping, a distinguished professor in the Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology at National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU), gives us an impromptu class in basic marine science.

Besides regulating atmospheric temperatures by absorbing and emitting heat, the oceans contain phytoplankton, including microalgae and cyanobacteria (a.k.a. blue-green algae), which through photosynthesis capture and absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). These have a vast capacity to fix carbon, on a par with terrestrial plants. Although not visible to the naked eye, they constitute a hidden forest in the oceans.

Scientists calculate that of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere by human activity, some 50% remains in the atmosphere, some 20% is taken up by terrestrial plants, and some 30% is absorbed by marine phytoplankton. A considerable proportion of these phytoplankton carry absorbed CO2 down to depths beyond 200 meters, and the deep seas have been called the “final resting place” for CO2.

Marine biologist Chiang Kuo-ping was one of the first generation of marine scientists to return to Taiwan with an advanced degree from a foreign university.

Algae are outstandingly effective at fixing carbon, and will be an important focus for research in the context of climate change.

Data: The first step in sustainability

Because human life is so closely interlinked with the oceans, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14, on Life Below Water, states: “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.” Chiang comments: “It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that sustainability of the oceans is synonymous with sustainability of the Earth.”

The first step toward achieving sustainable development is to get objective scientific data. This is why the UN has designated the years 2021–2030 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. In response, Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council and Ocean Affairs Council have proposed a ten-year initiative to advance marine science, and plan to build an ocean observation network within five years.

It is possible to determine the amount of organic carbon stored in seagrass beds by measuring the height of the plants. (courtesy of Tseng Hsiao-chun, Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology, NTOU)

Buoys like this one transmit data captured by their instruments in real time. (courtesy of Jan Sen, Institute of Oceanography, NTOU)

Modern marine science in Taiwan

To be sure, marine research poses particular challenges. As Chiang puts it: “Things that are easy on land are very difficult at sea.” Even when collecting basic data, most of the survey locations are far offshore, and sometimes readings need to be taken on the ocean floor at depths of 3,000–5,000 ­meters. Besides requiring high technology, this work takes a lot of financing—the operation of a research vessel is said to cost more than NT$1 million for each day at sea.

Marine science in Taiwan got its start back when the island’s economy took off and was growing rapidly. It was not until 1983 that Taiwan had its first seagoing research vessel, Ocean Researcher 1. Chiang notes that in 1989, members of our first generation of marine scientists, including Liu Kon-kee and Chuang Wen-ssu, began conducting a large-scale multidisciplinary research program on “Kuroshio edge exchange processes” (KEEP), which was the first such program to win financial backing from a government agency, the National Science Council (now the National Science and Technology Council).

“This was an important turning point in the development of our marine science, and you could say that 1989 was ‘Year 1’ of modern oceanography in Taiwan.” Chiang, who returned to Taiwan from Japan in 1993, was one of Taiwan’s first group of oceanographers. Having been involved at that crucial time, he can’t hide his excitement when talking about the old days. Today, 30 years later, Chiang laughs as he remarks that back in the day they “barely knew how to use the instruments,” whereas today Taiwan’s marine research ranks among the world’s leaders.

Cross-disciplinary integration

In former times, oceanographers could disregard world affairs and concentrate on the cutting edge of pure science. However, given the many pressing issues of today, even Lee Yuan-tseh, former president of the Aca­demia Sinica, has declared that in the face of existential issues such as climate change, “We can wait no longer.”

Marine science is a multidisciplinary specialization that brings together atmospheric science, physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science. Moreover, many potentially catastrophic natural events are related to the oceans, such as typhoons, which develop over the sea, subsea earthquakes, and the tsunamis that such earthquakes may trigger. Today there are also many major manmade problems, including the greenhouse effect, ocean acidification, marine pollution, and exhaustion of marine resources. In other words, the study and application of marine science is indispensable to the resilience and wellbeing of human life on this planet.

This is the reason why in recent years many oceanographers, seeing the urgency of problems like climate change and environmental pollution, have left their academic comfort zones and dedicated themselves to finding solutions.

This is also why marine chemist Ho Tung-yuan, a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Environmental Changes, has in recent years been actively taking part in an international multi­disciplinary research program called “Future Earth.” This program, which has been strongly promoted by Lee Yuan-tseh, is mainly focused on global issues related to environmental change and sustainable development, in hopes of finding science-based solutions through collaboration between different academic fields.

Ho is convener of Future Earth’s marine issues working group “Ocean KAN.” He notes that over the past three years, Ocean KAN has promoted discussion of various issues in Taiwan, such as aquaculture farming of algae, sustainable fisheries, the establishment of marine protected areas, and “blue carbon” (carbon capture by ocean ecosystems) in the context of climate change. These issues are all relevant to the development of various industries and the daily life of citizens, which means that how they are handled has practical implications and far-reaching effects.

Sometimes, the problems themselves aren’t all that difficult to solve. “The answers might already be there, but you still need to win trust and build consensus among everyone involved.” Ho says that cross-disciplinary collaboration is required not only in technological matters, but also in communication: All the stakeholders in an issue need to understand each others’ viewpoints, and science provides an important foundation in the search for consensus. “We used to say, ‘from science to policy and management,’ but now­adays it is just as important that when major policies are adopted, science must act quickly to support these measures,” says Ho earnestly.

Ho Tung-yuan (in light blue shirt) and his team setting out to sea on the Taiwanese marine research vessel Legend. (courtesy of Ho Tung-yuan)

Algae play a leading role, albeit a low-profile one, in regulating the climate. The photo shows sea sawdust (Trichodesium spp., a genus of filamentous cyanobacteria) gathered from the surface water of the Kuroshio Current; its cells   are only six micrometers wide. (courtesy of Ho Tung-yuan)

Marine research requires big budgets and advanced technology, so most of the work done in this area has been conducted by the world’s wealthiest countries.

Connecting to the world through oceans

To promote the implementation of scientific governance in Taiwan, in mid-2022 a number of scholars led by Chiang Kuo-ping announced the formation of a think tank named the Taiwan Ocean Union (TOU).

Chiang, who stresses that they “mean business,” shares several important issues on which the TOU wants to promote action. The first step is to establish an ocean observation network, and the second is to make good use of the data it acquires. This data will be enormously useful for disaster preparedness, and can also be applied to the development of marine industries, including marine energy (such as electric power generation from ocean current or wave energy), the construction of offshore wind farms, and the manufacture of marine scientific instruments. These are all industries that Taiwan is lacking at present, but are critical to national strength and economic growth.

The commitment of effort at a national level to marine research indicates that Taiwan has transitioned from being a land-focused country to being a maritime nation.

As an island nation, investment in the oceans is not only geographically essential and can make citizens more prosperous, it also provides a foundation for ­Taiwan to express itself to the world.

For example, in 2022 the representatives in Taiwan of six countries—­Palau, Tuvalu, Nauru, Haiti, Eswatini, and Papua New Guinea​—held a round-table conference at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung to discuss how to use Taiwan’s marine science and technology to help these mostly Pacific island nations estimate the blue carbon value of their maritime exclusive economic zones.

With the entire world responding to the call for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the calculation of carbon sequestration has become a hot topic. Chiang Kuo-ping says: “Island countries have extensive exclusive economic zones, and deep-sea areas have great potential for blue carbon effects, but this is a subject that is generally neglected by continental countries.” Because the UN has yet to incorporate blue carbon into total carbon capture data, Taiwan wants to help these island nations in hopes that through them the international community will take seriously the importance of blue carbon trading.

Ocean issues are so far-reaching that they often involve the whole of humankind. Ho Tung-yuan says: “Taiwan is an island nation—it should be at one with the sea.” Taiwan already has a firm foundation in terms of its robust economy and outstanding academic research. Via the oceans it can share its achievements and engage in dialogue with the world.

The Taiwan Ocean Union, organized by marine scientists, holds regular conferences where they present their research and exchange ideas. (courtesy of NTOU)

Researchers collect samples from the seafloor in order to measure the amount of greenhouse gases released by sediment on seagrass beds. (courtesy of Tseng Hsiao-chun, Institute of Marine Environment and Ecology, NTOU)

By using “sediment collectors,” researchers can investigate the sedimentary materials in the deep ocean and learn how they are transported and the amounts that have accumulated. (courtesy of Ho Tung-yuan)