Marine Science Affairs 



The complexity of data management can be illustrated by the variety of 

 observable quantities and the diversity of their sources and end-uses. 



Data are obtained from the world oceans, coastal waters, estuaries, and 

 Great Lakes by : 



— research and survey ships, off-shore platforms, submersibles, and 



divers; 

 — ships of opportunity in the merchant marine, Navy, Coast Guard and 



commercial fisheries; 

 — spacecraft, aircraft, and buoys. 

 Data may be real-time or archival ; may be presented in the form of maps, 

 documents, visual displays, analogue or digital records; and may consist 

 of sea water, biological or geological samples. 



Data involve more than 100 kinds of physical, geophysical, and chemical 

 variables. Thousands of geological samples must be stored ; more than one- 

 half million species of biota must be classified; and great quantities of 

 marine meteorological data must be processed. 

 In turn, data are used by : 



— marine scientists and teachers; 

 — meteorologists and seismologists; 

 — naval planners and operators; 

 — commercial fishermen; 



— producers of off-shore oil, gas, and minerals ; 



— regulatory authorities concerned with off-shore activities and en- 

 vironmental quality of the Coastal Zone. 

 Beginning some eight years ago, several Federal data centers were estab- 

 lished to meet the demand for management of oceanographic data. These 

 centers involve complex inter-connected functions of acquisition, standard- 

 ization and tests for accuracy, storage, retrieval, analysis, and synthesis that 

 must be performed to make data readily and economically accessible to 

 specialized users. 



The newly established data facilities almost immediately became inade- 

 quate as the result of insufficient national data bases, incompatible data 

 formats for eflficient exchange, delays in filing, archaic processing and com- 

 munication methods, and lack of critical evaluation. An increasingly serious 

 problem for the future is how to manage an even larger volume and diversity 

 of marine data which are certain to result from intensified activities and new 

 technologies. Data generation will increase rapidly with the expanding de- 

 ployment of ocean buoys, modern ships with integrated sensors, spacecraft, 

 and ships of opportunity. Effective data services that afford prompt and 

 reliable dissemination should be developed to match the speed and sophis- 

 tication of data acquisition if the benefits of new technology are to be 



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