Coastal oceans are vital to world health and sustenance. Technology that enables new observations has always been the driver of discovery in ocean sciences. In this context, we describe the first at sea deployment and operation of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICPMS) for continuous measurement of trace elements in seawater. The purpose of these experiments was to demonstrate that an ICPMS could be operated in a corrosive and high vibration environment with no degradation in performance. Significant advances occurred this past year due to ship time provided by Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UCSD), as well as that funded through this project. Evaluation at sea involved performance testing and characterization of several real-time seawater analysis modes. We show that mass spectrometers can rapidly, precisely and accurately determine ultratrace metal concentrations in seawater, thus allowing high-resolution mapping of large areas of surface seawater. This analytical capability represents a significant advance toward real-time observation and understanding of water mass chemistry in dynamic coastal environments. In addition, a joint LLNL-SIO workshop was convened to define and design new technologies for ocean observation. Finally, collaborative efforts were initiated with atmospheric scientists at LLNL to identify realistic coastal ocean and river simulation models tomore » support real-time analysis and modeling of hazardous material releases in coastal waterways.« less