• 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 Explora- 

 tion (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) environ- 

 mental 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 in- 

 cluded publishing this series of reports. 



Lauriston R. King, Acting Head 

 International Decade of 

 Ocean Exploration Section 



IV 



