We make the following specific recommendations : 



• Since the program label will increasingly obscure program plan- 

 ning issues, the IDOE, as such, should end as planned in 1980. 

 However the function of supporting long-term, multidisciplinary, 

 multi-institutional ocean studies is an essential one that should 

 be maintained within NSF — perhaps in an Office of Ocean Ex- 

 ploration — and applied to studies of this general sort for which 

 we see a need continuing beyond 1980. 



• The funds presently allocated to long-term cooperative ocean 

 studies should continue to be earmarked for such programs, after 

 the decade ends. 



• A start should be made now, under NSF leadership, to define 

 goals and guidelines for the programs that should succeed the 

 IDOE. Numerous candidates exist, including some not restricted 

 to ocean jDhenomena alone. Examples include studies related to 

 the prediction of weather and climate, which depend upon un- 

 derstanding the interactions between the air and the sea, studies 

 of the marine processes responsible for tl^e formation, in past 

 millennia, of ore deposits, some of which lie on lahd today, and 

 studies of the magnitude and variability of ocean living resource 

 productivity. 



• During^ the remainder of the IDOE, a greater eflfort should be 

 made to foster the growth of oceanographic competence in de- 

 veloping countries. A distinction should be made between the 

 research interests of the developed nations, which are already 

 characterized by considerable. 'international cooperation, and the 

 research interests — and capabilities — of the less developed coastal 

 nations. Cooperation with the latter is often hampered by their 

 inability to collaborate with or even use the results of research 

 which the more developed countries plan for their coastal waters. 

 Yet their concurrence will be increasingly important. NACOA 

 has long advocated U.S. efforts to involve these nations in ocean 

 research of mutual interest. IDOE, with its orientation toward 

 ocean use and. environmental protection, is a logical means toward 

 this end. We would recommend that additional funding be pro- 

 vided to accomplish this purpose. 



• Greater emphasis should be placed on assuring full realization of 

 practical as well as scientific benefits inherent in IDOE programs.' 

 This will require a more systematic involvement of mission agen- 

 cies than has heretofore been the case. 



• The IDOE Office should seek ways to support individual scien- 

 tists wishing to participate in IDOE projects of other nations not 

 funded by NSF, should develop means for reporting and publi- 



