work of a long-term programme of research 

 and exploration . . .," and further invited 

 member states "to formulate proposals for na- 

 tional and international scientific programmes 

 and agreed activities to be undertaken during 

 the international decade of ocean exploration 

 with due regard to the interests of developing 

 countries, to transmit these proposals to the 

 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and 

 Cultural Organization for the Intergovern- 

 mental Oceanographic Commission in time to 

 begin the decade in 1970, and to embark on 

 such activities as soon as practicable." 



At its Sixth Session in September 1969 the 

 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commis- 

 sion defined the purpose of the expanded pro- 

 gram to be: "To increase knowledge of the 

 ocean, its contents and the contents of its sub- 

 soil, and its interfaces with the land, the 

 atmosphere, and the ocean floor and to irn- 

 prove understanding of processes operating in 

 or affecting the marine environment, with the 

 goal of enhanced utilization of the ocean and 

 its resources for the benefit of mankind. . . ." 

 At the same time the IOC established a Group 

 of Experts on Long-Term Scientific Policy and 

 Planning who were "to develop the scope and 

 content of the long-term and expanded pro- 

 grammes of oceanographic research of which 

 the International Decade of Ocean Explora- 

 tion is an important element." 



The U.S. National Council on Marine Re- 

 sources and Engineering Development then in- 

 vited the National Academy of Sciences and 

 National Academy of Engineering to prepare 

 detailed recommendations for the United 

 States contribution to the Decade. Distin- 

 guished scientists and engineers from the 

 academic, industrial and governmental com- 

 munities examined the full range of questions 

 related to this unprecedented effort. Attention 

 focused on priorities among the scientific and 

 engineering goals, the capabilities necessary 

 to realize them and the products and benefits 

 to mankind anticipated from implementation 

 of the Decade idea. In May 1969 the Acad- 

 emies jointly reported their conclusions. - 



The guiding premise of the International 

 Decade concept was that sustained interna- 



~ An Oceanic Quest, (he /nternnfionn/ Decade of 

 Ocean Exploralion, National .'\cademy of Sciences 

 and National Academy of Engineering, Washington, 

 D. C, 1969. 



tional planning and coordination would target 

 on the most promising geographic areas and 

 lines of scientific inquiry, set priorities and 

 agree on the sharing and distribution of effort. 

 The results of this work would be published 

 freely and promptly for the benefit of every- 

 one. There was to be strong insistence on 

 standardized data collection and dissemina- 

 tion, expanded activity by a large number of 

 nations and greater coordination among the 

 international organizations concerned with the 

 oceans. In short, the Decade was to be a 

 period of "intensified collaborative planning 

 among nations and expansion of exploration 

 capabilities by individual nations, followed by 

 execution of national and international pro- 

 grams of oceanic research and resource ex- 

 ploration so as to assemble a far more 

 comprehensive knowledge of the sea in a rea- 

 sonably short time."^ The anticipated success 

 of the effort hinges largely on the "extent to 

 which various nations contribute their par- 

 ticular expertise and capabilities, assume a 

 share of responsibility for the program, de- 

 velop their manpower and facilities and dis- 

 seminate to others the results of scientific and 

 other discoveries."* 



As a major part of President Richard M. 

 Nixon's program in marine science, Vice- 

 President Spiro T. Agnew announced on Oc- 

 tober 19, 1969, the initial U.S. plans for partici- 

 pation in the International Decade of Ocean 

 Exploration. Several weeks later the Vice- 

 President, in his capacity as Chairman of the 

 National Council on Marine Resources and 

 Engineering Development, assigned responsi- 

 bility for the planning, management and fund- 

 ing of United States IDOE activities to the 

 National Science Foundation. In assigning 

 Decade responsibility to the Foundation, the 

 Vice-President set out the following goals: 



• Preserve the ocean environment by ac- 

 celerating scientific observations of the 

 natural state of the ocean and its inter- 

 actions with the coastal margin — to pro- 

 vide a basis for (a] assessing and 

 predicting man-induced and natural modi- 

 fications of the character of the oceans: 



3 Marine Science Affairs — A Year of Broadened Par- 

 ticipation, The Third Report of the President to the 

 Congress on Marine Resources and Engineering De- 

 velopment, January 1969, p. 125. 



■1 ibid., p. 126. 



