m 

 Preface 



The field of oceanography has existed as a major scientific 

 discipline in the United States since World War II, largely funded 

 by the federal government. In this report, the Ocean Studies 

 Board documents the state of the field of oceanography and as- 

 sesses the health of the partnership between the federal govern- 

 ment and the academic oceanography community. 



The objectives of the report are to document and discuss im- 

 portant trends in the human, physical, and fiscal resources avail- 

 able to oceanographers, especially academic oceanographers, over 

 the last decade; to present the Ocean Studies Board's best assess- 

 ment of scientific opportunities in physical oceanography, marine 

 geochemistry, marine geology and geophysics, biological oceanog- 

 raphy, and coastal oceanography during the upcoming decade; and, 

 to provide a blueprint for more productive partnerships between 

 academic oceanographers and federal agencies. 



The study's approach was to document trends in resources 

 over the past ten to twenty years and to speculate on the likely 

 directions of oceanographic science over the next decade. The 

 board used a number of means to gather information from ocean 

 scientists and from the agencies that conduct and fund ocean sci- 

 ence. A meeting on the topic of oceanographic facilities was 

 attended by a number of agency representatives to discuss agency 

 provision and use of these facilities. In addition, agencies that 

 employ oceanographers were surveyed to determined the human 

 resources characteristics of the federal agencies now and over the 

 past twenty years. 



' . . - .,, " ix 



