National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering 

 which produced the report "An Oceanic Quest." ^ 



In October 1969, the Vice President of the United States, as Chair- 

 man of the National Council of Marine Resources and Engineering De- 

 velopment, formally announced the intention of the United States to con- 

 tribute to the IDOE, and assigned to the National Science Foundation 

 the responsibility for planning, managing and funding the U.S. program. 

 The Vice President announced a set of goals for the program which 

 centered on 



• preservation of the ocean environment by accelerating scientific 

 observations of the natural state of the ocean and its interactions 

 with the coastal margin, 



• improvement of environmental forecasting to help reduce hazards 

 to life and property and permit more efficient use of marine 

 resources, 



• expansion of seabed assessment activities to premit better man- 

 agement of marine mineral exploration and exploitation, 



• development of an ocean monitoring system to facilitate predic- 

 tion of oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, 



• improvement of worldwide data exchange, 



• increased opportunities for international sharing of the responsi- 

 bilities and costs of ocean e5cploration, to assure better use of 

 limited exploration capabilities. 



These goals reflected most of the key recommendations of "An Oceanic 

 Quest." Funds provided for the program, however, have settled at 

 roughly $15 million per year, far short of the $100 million per year en- 

 visaged by the Academies. As a consequence many of the early hopes for 

 the IDOE never materialized. 



By early 1975, the United States had embarked on 16 IDOE proj- 

 ects, all of which included participation by at least one other nation, with 

 several having as many as 8 or more other countries involved. A total of 

 36 other nations had participated in U.S. projects. Other countries were 

 slower in starting their own IDOE programs, but by 1975 fourteen proj- 

 ects had been initiated by foreign nations, and scientists from the United 

 States had partici])ated in eight of these, supported by research grants 

 from sources other than the U.S. IDOE program. NSF's IDOE Office 

 has confined its funding to U.S. j^rojccts (most of which do involve some 

 foreign participation) developed in accordance with its guidelines and 

 jDrocedures. It is for this U.S. program that NACOA's re\iew was 

 solicited. 



^ "An Oceanic Quest, the International Decade of Ocean Exploration/' National 

 Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engincerine:, Washington, D.C., 

 1969. 



