existence, three areas were chosen for priority attention: (1) environmental 

 quality; (2) environmental 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 (EDS) of the National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to manage the scientific data for 

 IDOE. The agreement included publishing this series of reports. EDS managers 

 work with IDOE-supported scientists to compile and organize data from IDOE 

 projects. Whenever possible programmers convert the original data into com- 

 puter readable form. The data are stored in a way that allows fast retrieval and 

 long-term preservation and are made available on either an exchange basis or 

 for the cost of reproduction. 



To alert scientists and others interested in what is going on in IDOE, EDS 

 prepares the annual IDOE Progress Report. This is Volume 5 in that series. I 

 hope it will be useful to those concerned about our advances in understanding 

 the oceans and their importance for man's activities. Comments about the 

 reports and IDOE programs are welcomed. 



Feenan D. Jennings, Head 

 Office for the International 

 Decade of Ocean Exploration 



VI 



