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Coastal ocean observing and modeling systems (coastal observatories), connected with regional and global ocean systems, improve the quality of information and forecasts for effective management of safe and sustainable maritime activities. The public availability of systematic and long-term information of the ocean is an engine for the Blue Economy, boosting economic growth, employment, and innovation. An overview of some Brazilian initiatives is presented in this paper, involving universities, private companies, federal and state agencies, covering institutions from south to north of Brazil. Although these initiatives focus mainly on ocean physics, integrated efforts can extend the scope to include biogeochemistry and marine biodiversity, helping to address interdisciplinary problems. Existing initiatives can be connected, and new ones fostered, to fill in the gaps of temporal and spatial coverage of ocean monitoring in the vast oceanic area under Brazilian jurisdiction (nationally referred to as the Blue Amazon, in reference to the similar richness of the Amazon Forest). The alignment among national and regional initiatives, as well as with international programs, can be promoted if coordinated by a national-level organization, maximizing the return of public investment and socioeconomic benefits. In light of international examples, possible future institutional arrangements are discussed, leveraging from existing national public policies and international cooperation that Brazil is taking part. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is a timely opportunity to encourage an institutional arrangement to support and articulate an integrated network of coastal observatories in Brazil.

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The knowledge of wind stress variability could represent an important contribution to understand the variability over upper layer ocean volume transports. The South Brazilian Bight (SBB) circulation had been studied by numerous researchers who predominantly attempted to estimate its meridional volume transport. The main objective and contribution of this study is to identify and quantify possible interannual variability in the ocean volume transport in the SBB induced by the sea surface wind stress field. A low resolution ocean global circulation model was implemented to investigate the volume transport variability. The results obtained indicate the occurrence of interannual variability in meridional ocean volume transports along three different zonal sections. These results also indicate the influence of a wind driven large-scale atmospheric process that alters locally the SBB and near-offshore region wind stress field and consequently causes interannual variability in the upper layer ocean volume transports. A strengthening of the southward flow in 25 ∘ S and 30 ∘ S was observed. The deep layer ocean volume transport in the three monitored sections indicates a potential dominance of other remote ocean processes. A small time lag between the integrated meridional volume transports changes in each monitored zonal section was observed.

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