Climate services are identified as a means of providing the information that is needed to support decision makers in assessing the impacts of climate change on the oceans. We discuss the current observation programs to support these services, and their capacity to provide the information needed to monitor and address key science questions. An analysis of the current oceanographic observation programs is shown to be undersubscribed from their original plans. There are vulnerabilities in the current observing programs, particularly in relation to satellite measurements. The interaction of climate services with the research community, with policy makers and stakeholders and operational centres is outlined and leads to four recommendations. The key recommendations are for the more pervasisve development of climate services and for a modest increment in the observing program informed by the recommendations of the OceanObs’09 conference.