The Next Wave

A New Year, A New Wave of Ocean Intelligence

Author

Joshua Humberston
January 05, 2026

Hello and Happy New Year!

A new year brings both urgency and opportunity for the ocean and coastal systems we depend on. Rising risks, tighter timelines, and higher expectations are reshaping how data must be collected, integrated, and used. The Next Wave for Coastal Measures represents our commitment to meeting that challenge—building a clearer, more connected view of the coast through CUMULUS and our growing network of partners. In the months ahead, we’re focused on turning complexity into clarity and enabling smarter decisions across resilience, infrastructure, and the blue economy

YSOK AI

Through a collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Coastal Measures developed Young Seeker of Knowledge (YSOK)—an AI agent embedded in the standardized ocean data fabric of CUMULUS. YSOK allows users to query and analyze data across multiple sensor vendors through a simple chat interface, making complex, cross-dataset questions answerable instantly.

Why the name YSOK?

Young Seeker of Knowledge is a nod to the mindset we value most in ocean science and engineering: curiosity, rigor, and a relentless drive to understand complex systems. The name recognizes Dr. Thomas Lippmann’s ongoing work and leadership in coastal and ocean engineering—and reflects the spirit we aim to embed in YSOK itself: always learning, always available, and always focused on turning data into meaningful insight.

Interested in shaping YSOK v1?
We’re opening a limited beta for early users interested in testing YSOK’s ability to query and analyze multi-vendor ocean data through natural language. If you work with coastal, ocean, or environmental data and want early access, we’d love to hear from you.

Weather, Without the Silos

Our newest Works With CUMULUS (WWC) sensor is the Tempest weather station by WeatherFlow—a compact, highly capable system that delivers real-time measurements of temperature, precipitation, light, wind, and more, starting at just $350. By integrating scalable, distributed weather stations into CUMULUS, we significantly enhance model resolution and better capture hyper-local atmospheric drivers of coastal processes. This integration strengthens everything from nearshore forecasting to compound flood analysis—and we’re just getting started. Stay tuned for the next newsletter, as another sensor vendor will be joining CUMULUS very soon.

Full Circle

We are honored to welcome Blaine Grimes to the Coastal Measures advisory team. Blaine brings deep expertise in the Blue Economy—and, fittingly, her insight years ago helped shape the very foundation of CUMULUS. We still remember her observation: “There are so many sensors already out there, and that’s great, but none of them work together. What’s really needed is a way to bring all that data into the same place.” Today, that idea is CUMULUS. We couldn’t be more excited to reconnect with Blaine and work together to bring this vision fully into the mainstream.

Other News

  • Coastal Measures has been named a finalist for an InnovateMass award.

  • Coastal Measures is a Gold sponsor for this year’s MTS Buoy workshop and will be sending 3 representatives. Please let us know if you will be there!

  • Humberston, CEO, attended the NSF site review for the NSPIRE engine where he spoke with a panel of reviewers about entrepreneurship in the Blue Economy and how data can support sustainable seafood.

  • Coastal Measures has been accepted into VentureWell’s Stage 2 Ocean Enterprise Accelerator, to take place this spring.