199 



elements of such a system arc already in place, 

 having evolved over many years. 



The international exchange of real-time 

 data through the World Meteorological Or- 

 ganization is an important part of the sys- 

 tem. Almost all nations support air and sea 

 surface observing and forecast systems, and 

 without access to their data U.S. services 

 wotdd l)e seriously impaired. Because obser- 

 \-ations must be obtained over tlie continents 

 as well as the sea, the global system involves 

 all nonmaritime nations as well. 



Integration of planning activities at the 

 international level has not advanced as 

 rapidly as at the national level. But years of 

 cooperation in oceanic and atmospheric ac- 

 tivities have yielded a legacy of common in- 

 terests among the world's scientists and a 

 large network of international organizations. 

 The United States and its citizens are active 

 in most of them. 



International Organizations 



At the Goverriment level, the principal 

 marine science organization is the Inter- 

 governmental Oceanographic Commission 

 (IOC) of the United Nations Education, 

 Scientific and Cultural Organization (UN- 

 ESCO), founded in 1961. UNESCO also 

 operates an Office of Oceanography, which 

 provides staff support to the IOC and con- 

 ducts some activities of its own. Such activi- 

 ties as the recent Indian Ocean and Tropical 

 Atlantic expeditions were sponsored by IOC. 

 The International Hydrographic Bureau as- 

 sists in the standardization and disseminat ion 

 of ocean survey data. The World Meteorolog- 

 ical Organization (WMO) and the Food 

 and Agricultural Organization (FAO) are 

 involved in the sciences related to the prob- 

 lems of meteorology and fisheries. 



The principal nongovernment interna- 

 tional body which provides a forum for all 

 sciences is the International Council of 



The Intergovernmental Oceano- 

 graphic Commission, at present the 

 principal intergovernmental marine 

 science organization, is assisting 

 nations in planning for an 

 Integrated Global Ocean Station 

 System to monitor and predict 

 the state of the oceans. 



Scientific Unions (ICSU). The constituent 

 groups of ICSU which are of particular 

 importance to the marine sciences are the 

 Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research 

 and the International Union of Geodesy and 

 Geophysics. 



In general, the Commission finds that the 

 present government and nongovernment 

 international organizations have served well 

 in facilitating collaboration on marine science 

 problems. However, as the pace of research 

 and exploration intensifies and their scope 

 broadens and becomes increasingly entwined 

 with related scientific interests, the strength- 

 ening and perhaps restructuring of both gov- 

 ernment and nongovernment organizations 

 will be needed. This need is particularly 

 pressing if development of worldwide sys- 

 tems for earth, air, and ocean monitoring are 

 to be coordinated. 



It is clear to the Commission that IOC's 



