The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Services (BIOS) has partnered with a group of scientific institutions urging governments to boost monitoring of the oceans.

The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) is appealing for an integrated ocean monitoring system for the world's seas by 2015.

Bermuda is a key member of the group.

BIOS director Tony Knap said: "It's about time we had this global ocean observation system in place. It's very important for mankind, and if you look at its cost, it's still minimal compared to a bank bailout."

The proposed system of monitoring equipment could cost between $10 and $15 billion.

POGO will make its case at the Earth Observations summit in Beijing, where environmental ministers from around the world will discuss worldwide monitoring of the environment.

Dr Knap, who is a member of POGO's five-man executive board, said Bermudian research helps the group "push the ocean agenda" at the meeting.

He called Bermuda a key player within POGO, as the world's most measured site for ocean observations. A total of 38 oceanographic institutions belong to the group, which represents about 80 percent of the world's current ocean monitoring.

"The Bermuda time series is the metric that people use to measure these changes in the ocean," Dr Knap said, explaining that Bermuda's data includes the longest measure of changing carbon dioxide levels in the ocean, plus the longest continuous temperature record.

BIOS will watch the Beijing summit closely, he said: "Unfortunately there's not a lot of very good news about the ocean and climate change.

"Quite often people don't want to hear more, but we have to be able to understand and then act."

As well as tracking changes to the seas, the proposed monitoring system could improve tsunami warnings, protect shipping and improve the forecasting of catastrophic weather shifts.