• Improve worldwide data exchange through modernizing and stand- 

 ardizing 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 

 and began to define the United States program. In the first year of IDOE's 

 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. 



Feenan D. Jennings, Head 

 Office for the International 

 Decade of Ocean Exploration 



