• Improve worldwide data exchange through modernizing and standard- 

 izing national and international marine data collection, processing, and 

 distribution; and 



• Accelerate Decade planning to increase opportunities for international 

 sharing of responsibilities and costs for ocean exploration, and to assure 

 better use of limited exploration capabilities. 



Shortly after receiving the Vice-President's charge, the National Science 

 Foundation set up the Office for the International Decade of Ocean 

 Exploration (now International Decade of Ocean Exploration Section) and 

 began to define the U.S. program. In the first year of IDOE's existence, three 

 areas were chosen for priority attention: (1 ) environmental quality, (2) envi- 

 ronmental forecasting, and (3) seabed assessment. In 1971, living resources 

 was added as a fourth program area. 



A key goal of IDOE has been to make sure that data from all projects will be 

 available to future users. In pursuit of this objective, the IDOE Office of NSF 

 contracted with the Environmental Data Service (now Environmental Data and 

 Information Service) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

 to manage the scientific data for IDOE. The agreement included publishing a 

 series of progress reports. 



M. Grant Gross, Director 

 Ocean Sciences Division 



