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PREFACE 



A similar questionnaire was sent to the institutional members of 

 the Council on Ocean Affairs to assess the characteristics of the aca- 

 demic oceanography community. Agency and academic scientists 

 were brought together on a number of occasions to discuss the re- 

 sources available to the field and the science directions of the field. 



The board convened two meetings on the future of oceano- 

 graphic science, one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast. 

 These meetings brought together groups of oceanographers bal- 

 anced by scientific discipline and these meetings were used to 

 discuss working documents on the exciting science directions of 

 each of the disciplines. The Ocean Studies Board is grateful to 

 those who took on the task of gathering the information for each 

 discipline: Arnold Gordon (physical oceanography), Paul T. Fox 

 and Charles Langmuir (marine geology and geophysics), John Edmond 

 and John Hedges (chemical oceanography and marine chemistry), 

 James Yoder (biological oceanography), and Kenneth Brink (coastal 

 oceanography). Many other people too numerous to cite individu- 

 ally assisted in various aspects of the study, particularly board 

 members who reviewed sections within their fields of expertise. 



The board presented its preliminary findings at two meetings 

 of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), one of the major sci- 

 entific societies to which oceanographers belong. The purpose of 

 the AGU special sessions was to get feedback from scientists in 

 the field of oceanography, to ensure that the board's views were 

 representative of the field as a whole. The first special session, 

 on the topic of resources for oceanography, was held at the De- 

 cember 1990 AGU meeting in San Francisco, California. The 

 second special session, which summarized the results of the two 

 meetings on future oceanographic science, was held at the May 

 1991 AGU meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. 



This study was funded by the agencies that support research 

 in oceanography, including the National Science Foundation, the 

 Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Administration, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological 

 Survey, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 

 The board gratefully acknowledges the efforts of the staff of the 

 Ocean Studies Board who labored with the board to produce this 

 report, particularly Mary Hope Katsouros, Edward R. Urban, Jr., 

 Rebecca Metzner Seter, Robin Rice, and David Wilmot. The edi- 

 tor of the report was Sheila Mulvihill. 



William J. Merrell 

 Study Chair 



