A EuroGO-SHIP Success Story
By Teodor Mușat, GeoEcoMar | September 10, 2025
The Black Sea is one of the European basins that requires continuous monitoring to understand the changes driven by global warming. Although national research institutes have maintained ongoing observation, the dissolution of the once-collaborative Black Sea GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) has left the community fragmented, operating without the advantages of a shared platform for exchanging knowledge and resources.
Established in 2001, the Black Sea GOOS marked a significant collaboration among the six riparian countries—Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and later Romania. Its primary goal was to observe and forecast variability in the Black Sea, from the basin-wide scale down to the coastal shelf area, across timescales ranging from days to weeks to months. This was achieved through the development and implementation of a forecasting and observation system. During its active years, Black Sea GOOS supported key regional tools, including profiling floats, coordinated CTD surveys, and early nowcasting/forecasting systems under EU-funded projects such as ARENA, ASCABOS, and ECOOP.
Read more about these projects here:
Unfortunately, after 2005, the initiative began to falter. Persistent funding challenges, shifting political priorities, and limited institutional support led to a decline in activity, leaving behind a patchwork of collaborative observational efforts but lacking a cohesive, sustainable framework.
In June 2023, this changed when EuroGO-SHIP reconnected the community. The initial event followed EuroGO-SHIP’s annual meeting in Constanța, Romania. The Black Sea Stakeholder Hydrographer Workshop was led by EuroGO-SHIP team members from partner GeoEcoMar and attended by scientists from Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, and Ukraine, along with EuroGO-SHIP partners. The workshop aligned with the project’s objective to co-design a Research Infrastructure (RI) tailored to the needs of regional ship-based hydrographers in Europe.
Workshop participants have long conducted observation programs in coastal, shelf, and deep waters, continuing the legacy of their predecessors. As Avtandil A. Kordzadze noted in his paper “Milestones in the History of the Black Sea Oceanography”:
“The Black Sea has many times become an object of attention not only to researcher-oceanographers, but also to the general public. Hundreds of articles and monographs are devoted to the Black Sea, since the 19th century many scientific expeditions have been carried out. Modern knowledge of the physical and biochemical processes in the Black Sea was formed over several hundred years as a result of tireless work and scientific activity of many researchers. The oceanography achieved the great successes especially in recent decades, which is the result of rapid scientific and technological progress.”
Avtandil A. Kordzadze
Read the full paper here:
During the workshop, hydrographers shared past successes in coordinating cruises and sharing facilities and they responded positively to EuroGO-SHIP’s concept of a new Research Infrastructure aimed at facilitating pan-European coordination.
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yücel, Deputy Director at the Middle East Technical University Institute of Marine Sciences (METU-IMS), emphasised the need for specific services:
“For me, the most valuable service EuroGO-SHIP could offer is coordination — providing information about open calls for international participation when a cruise is happening, what equipment is on board, and whether there’s space to join.”
Professor Yücel leads open-sea monitoring efforts in Turkey and participates in project-based, process-oriented cruises. He brings extensive experience in both national and collaborative oceanographic missions. He also stressed the need for specialised training, particularly in trace metal sampling and eDNA—areas where regional expertise could be enhanced through shared European resources. His team regularly conducts cruises in the Black Sea, Mediterranean, and Sea of Marmara, often training students in CTD rosette operations and chemical sampling.
EuroGO-SHIP’s engagement with the Black Sea hydrographer community continued through a follow-up in-person workshop in Venice, Italy at the 2nd Annual EuroGO-SHIP Meeting, as well as through online meetings, webinars, and surveys.
Stakeholders provided valuable insights that helped build a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape for hydrographers in the region—including the types of data collected, specific challenges faced, and key parameters needed to shape effective solutions.
Their input supported critical tasks in the project’s Work Package 4: Science Inputs and Stakeholder Engagement, and its corresponding deliverable: D4.3: Report on the results of consultations with government ministries and funding agencies.
Findings from this exercise revealed overlapping observational coverage, suggesting opportunities for joint programming and cost reduction. Recurrent themes included data management and best practices. The report also presents results from a ‘pen picture’ exercise, describing how hydrography is organised, funded, and operated across Europe, with a focus on decision-making processes around joining Research Infrastructures and identifying key stakeholders in each country.
A recurring need expressed throughout community engagements was training—specifically, robust programs for trace metal sampling, eDNA techniques, and core oceanographic skills. Professor Yücel noted the importance of hands-on experience with CTD rosette systems:
“Sometimes, (students) graduate without ever touching one!”
Violeta Slabakova, a researcher at the Institute of Oceanology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IO-BAS), in the “Ocean Technologies” department, focuses on satellite ocean colour products, marine bio-optics, and in situ autonomous optical measurements. She echoed the need for a specialised RI that offers training and equipment loans:
What is a CTD rosette system?
CTD: The CTD is an essential tool for oceanographers, used to measure the conductivity (measures electrical conductivity to estimate salinity), temperature, and depth in the water that the sensor is measuring from (water depth and pressure), often combined with additional sensors to capture oxygen levels, fluorescence, turbidity, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and pH.
Additional areas identified for training include trace metal clean sampling, eDNA and molecular techniques, access to scientific equipment (ROVs, gliders, AUVs, etc.), and standardised cruise coordination tools across institutions. These capabilities are vital for building a comprehensive picture of ocean health—from understanding biogeochemical cycles to tracking biodiversity and ecosystem changes. The resulting data supports climate models, informs sustainable resource management, and provides the evidence base needed by policymakers and society to respond effectively to environmental challenges.
Participants also emphasised the lack of shared equipment pools and called for open platforms where cruise plans and available berths are visible to all. They noted that sharing already exists within smaller partnerships in the region. Dr. Luminita Buga, Senior Researcher at the National Institute for Marine Research and Development Grigore Antipa (NIMRD), confirmed that collaboration is not just aspirational—it’s already happening in parts of the Black Sea:
“Nowadays in other parts of Europe it’s normal to share equipment. We already work this way with our Black Sea partners – lending each other gear for joint cruises.”
Institutions such as METU-IMS and NIMRD are already familiar with submitting hydrographic data to platforms like SeaDataNet and EMODnet. However, they identified several persistent needs to enhance data management across the region. These include developing standardised metadata formats, improving quality control procedures for chemical and biological data, and creating common, user-friendly platforms for data submission and access—ensuring consistency and interoperability across Europe.
Dr. Luminita Buga, Senior Researcher at NIMRD
Violeta Slabakova, researcher at IO-BAS
Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yücel, Deputy Director at METU-IMS
Throughout the workshops, online meetings, and surveys, Black Sea hydrographers demonstrated a rare combination of technical expertise, regional collaboration, and a strong desire to extend that cooperation to a broader European context through accessible Research Infrastructure and institutional support. Their dedication not only advanced EuroGO-SHIP’s objectives but also illustrated how smaller seas with complex ecosystems can serve as scalable models for EuroGO-SHIP and similar initiatives.
The contributions of Black Sea hydrographers provide a compelling example of how regional engagement can reinforce pan-European efforts. From shaping consultation deliverables to proposing actionable solutions, they added significant value to EuroGO-SHIP’s mission to capture stakeholder requirements. They also highlighted the critical importance of preserving local knowledge and technical expertise—an essential component of EuroGO-SHIP’s strategy to deliver services that train, share, and integrate national efforts into a unified pan-European system.
About the author
Name: Teodor Mușat
Work Package: WP 3, 4
Organisation: GeoEcoMar, Romania
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