(ASFA); ASFA Related Tape Services; ASFIS World List of Periodicals 

 in Marine and Freshwater Science; and ASFIS Register of Experts and 

 Institutions. ASFA, which began in 1972, absorbed the former Current 

 Bibliography for Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries (CBASF) produced by 

 FAO and the Aquatic Biology Abstracts produced by Information Re- 

 trieval, Ltd. (IRL), London. 



231. AZORES FIXED ACOUSTIC RANGE: AFAR 



AFAR is an underwater acoustic facility established in 1973 

 with the encouragement of NATO by eight participating nations — Canada, 

 France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, 

 the United Kingdom, and United States. It is supervised by a steer- 

 ing dommittee composed of one member from each of the participating 

 nations, an adviser from NATO, and senior staff members of the AFAR 

 Directorate Office, the executive arm of the project. 



The site, near Santa Maria Island in the Azores, was selected for 

 its representative marine environment. Activities at the facility 

 include the collection of acoustic and environmental data representa- 

 tive of deep ocean conditions. 



232. CENTRO DE PRECLASIFICACION OCEANIA DE MEXICO: CPOM 

 Established in 1972, CPOM was a cooperative activity of UNESCO/ 



IOC and the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology that 

 sorted and stored biological samples. The center was established as 

 a part of the Mexican contribution to CICAR. 



233. FISHERY DATA CENTRE: FDC 



Established within FAO, FDC is designated as a specialized 

 world data center within the World Data Center System, responsible 

 for fishery data collected during cooperative international expe- 

 ditions sponsored by IOC and data Collected as a part of IBP spon- 

 sored by ICSU. FDC also maintains inventories of specialized data 

 holdings of other institutions such as biological sampling data 

 and data pertaining to monitoring the harvesting of fish stocks. 



234. INDIAN OCEAN BIOLOGICAL CENTRE: lOBC 



Founded in 1962, lOBC receives, sorts, and distributes zoo- 

 plankton samples collected during the International Indian Ocean 

 Expedition (IIOE). While administratively a part of the Indian 

 National Institute of Oceanography, lOBC receives support from UNESCO 

 and ICSU/SCOR to handle data taken by the national expeditions par- 

 ticipating in IIOE. It was the first of the three biological Centers 

 sponsored by UNESCO. 



235. INTERNATIONAL SEISMOLOGICAL CENTRE: ISC 



Established under the auspices of lUGG in 1964 and located at 

 the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, ISC also receives support and 

 direction from UNESCO and lASPEI. It is responsible for the collec- 

 tion and processing of worldwide seismological data and for the pub- 

 lication of related bulletins. To date, most of its activities have 

 Centered on the collection of information and publication of bulle- 

 tins listing the occurrences of earthquakes, including those in 

 marine areas. 



236. INTERNATIONAL TSUNAMI INFORMATION CENTER: ITIC 

 Established by IOC in 1967, ITIC, loCated in Hawaii and work- 

 ing in close collaboration with the U.S. National OCeanic and Atmos- 

 pheric Administration (NOAA) , compiles and disseminates tsunami data 



43 



