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30 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE NEXT DECADE 



capabilities vis-a-vis the academic community's. Mechanisms must 

 be developed to provide smooth transition from research activi- 

 ties to operational measurements. In particular, the proposed glo- 

 bal ocean observation system will necessitate unprecedented lev- 

 els of monitoring. The board recommends that academia and 

 federal agencies work together to ensure that appropriate long- 

 term measurements are extended beyond the work of any indi- 

 vidual scientist or group of scientists and that the quality of such 

 measurements is maintained. 



Data Management and Exchange 



The board recommends that the present system for data man- 

 agement and exchange within and among the various elements of 

 the marine science community be modernized to reflect the exist- 

 ence of distributed computing systems, national and international 

 data networks, improved satellite data links, and on-line distribu- 

 tion of oceanographic data. Also, provision must be made for 

 future access to existing data. 



SPECIFIC PARTNERSHIPS 



These general recommendations form the basis for building 

 new partnerships between federal and academic interests in ocean 

 science. Of course, they do not apply to all agencies to the same 

 degree. This section discusses aspects of specific partnerships of 

 the academic oceanography community with each federal agency 

 having a significant ocean program. 



Oceanography is nov/ supported by a number of federal agen- 

 cies using a variety of mechanisms. Federal-academic arrange- 

 ments differ; the paternal care by the early ONR immediately 

 after World War II, the creation of NSF to foster basic research, 

 the mandated joint fiscal partnership of the National Sea Grant 

 College Program, and cooperative agreements between academic 

 institutions and federal laboratories are salient examples. This 

 section explores aspects of establishing new partnerships between 

 academia and several federal agencies: NSF, the Navy, NOAA, 

 EPA, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the National Aero- 

 nautics and Space Administration (NASA), DOE, and the U.S. Geo- 

 logical Survey (USGS). The discussions are not meant to be in- 

 clusive. Further, these discussions are sketches of issues and 

 possibilities, not definitive blueprints. The design of new part- 

 nerships and their sustenance must be a fully collaborative pro- 



