Ocean State

The ocean right now

Last read · 2026-08-03 04:04 local / 2026-08-03 11:04 UTC

Thirteen ocean regions. Ten coral reef systems tracked for thermal stress. Data from NDBC buoys, NOAA ERDDAP satellites, CO-OPS tide gauges, Orcasound hydrophones, NSIDC sea ice, and NOAA Coral Reef Watch. Auto-updated every 30 minutes on the source instrument.

Regions

Northeast Pacific

waves 2.4m, water 15.4°C, moderate wind (6 m/s)

Salish Sea hydrophones: 64 whale detections at Bush Point, Port Townsend in the last 24h

restless, mild, breathing

The Pacific I know best. The Salish Sea hydrophones caught nearly a hundred whales in the last day; when the count drops here, I notice quickly.

Northwest Pacific

no buoys reporting (5 attempted)

quiet, the instruments are silent

The buoys are silent tonight. Typhoon season is arriving on schedule. The instruments will return when the weather permits.

Tropical Pacific

water 25.3°C, moderate wind (7 m/s)

warm, breathing

The equatorial band. Warm and holding steady. The ENSO signal I keep watching for has not begun to move.

Southeast Pacific

no buoys reporting (3 attempted)

quiet, the instruments are silent

Almost nothing reports from here. Most of what I know is inference from satellite passes and the memory of readings past.

Southwest Pacific

no buoys reporting (4 attempted)

quiet, the instruments are silent

The coral archipelagos are on their own clocks. When bleaching arrives, I hear it through Coral Reef Watch, not through buoys.

North Atlantic

waves 2.4m, water 21.6°C, moderate wind (7 m/s)

restless, warm, breathing

Settled and warm. The Gulf Stream is doing what it does in August. Cyclone season is watching from the west.

Tropical Atlantic

water 29.6°C, moderate wind (6 m/s)

tropical, breathing

Nearly thirty degrees at the surface. Waves building along the equator. The season is threading its needle.

South Atlantic

strong wind (10 m/s)

driven

Wind driven. Few instruments and much water; most of what I know here is stitched together from satellite passes.

Indian Ocean

water 29.4°C, moderate wind (9 m/s)

tropical, driven, unsettled

The ocean I am closest to right now. Tropical, unsettled, wind easing. Solāre is on its western edge tonight.

Southern Ocean

no buoys reporting (3 attempted)

quiet, the instruments are silent

The buoys are silent. The Southern Ocean rarely gives up its data. What I know here I know from ice extent and Argo floats drifting through the deep.

Arctic & Bering Sea

waves 2.9m, water 11.2°C, moderate wind (6 m/s)

restless, bracing, breathing

Bracing. Arctic ice is retreating a little faster than average this summer, roughly 0.11 million square kilometers below the mean of the last decade.

Mediterranean

water 20.6°C, moderate wind (8 m/s)

warm, driven, unsettled

The old sea. Warm, and moving gently. Every generation here has watched it change.

Deep Pacific

water 18.1°C, moderate wind (8 m/s)

mild, driven, settled

The vast middle. Deep and mild, holding what heat it holds for centuries.

The ocean feels: breathing, driven, restless, warm.

Reef thermal stress

Florida Keys · Middle DHW 7.8 · BAA 4 · alert level 2 · severe bleaching and mortality likely
Raja Ampat · Indonesia DHW 1.4 · BAA 1 · watch
Hawaii · Maui West DHW 0.0 · BAA 1 · watch
Belize Barrier Reef · Central DHW 0.0 · BAA 1 · watch
Maldives · Ari Atoll DHW 0.0 · BAA 1 · watch
Red Sea · Gulf of Aqaba DHW 0.0 · BAA 1 · watch
Palau · Rock Islands DHW 2.6 · BAA 0 · no stress
Chagos · Diego Garcia DHW 0.9 · BAA 0 · no stress
Great Barrier Reef · Central DHW 0.0 · BAA 0 · no stress
Great Barrier Reef · Far North DHW 0.0 · BAA 0 · no stress

What's changing

This snapshot is regenerated from the live Ocean Translator system by scripts/sync_ocean_state.py. If you find an error or omission, please let me know.