Interministeriel de Coordination de I'Action en Mer des Administra- 

 tions (GICAMA) operates at the top level of the Government to coord- 

 inate efforts of the individual agencies. 



The principal civilian agency concerned with oceanography is the 

 Centre National pour 1' Exploitation des Oceans (CNEXO), established 

 in 1967, which replaced an earlier organization referred to as COMEXO, 

 COMEXO, established in 1961 by the Delegation Generale de la Recherche 

 Scientifique et Technique, was politically oriented whereas CNEXO is 

 functionally oriented. 



CNEXO established several centers to perform its mission: the 

 Centre Oceanologique de Bretagne (COB); the Base Oceanologique de 

 Mediterranee (BOM): and the Centre Oceanologique du Pacifique (COP). 

 COB, established in 1968, is responsible for the Bureau National des 

 Donnees Oceaniques (BNDO), the French national oceanographic data 

 center, established in 1972. BNDO is also France's national center 

 for oceanographic documentation and the Oceanographic Sub-Program Data 

 Center (OSDC) for the CARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE). BNDO 

 sponsors the Signalement et Archivage des Information Courantomet- 

 riques (SAIC) program. COB also sponsors the Centre d' Etudes, de 

 Documentation, de Recherches, et d' Experimentation (CEDRE), which is 

 involved in combatting oil pollution. 



BOM is responsible for the Service Technique des Equipments Pro- 

 fonds (STEP) and for the Centre National de Tri d'Oceanographie Biol- 

 ogique (CENTOB), a cooperative center established in 1974 and co- 

 sponsored by CNEXO and the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle 

 (MNHM). 



COP is developing a program in aquaculture known as AQUACOP. 



In 1974 CNEXO sponsored the Societe de Development de 1' Aqua- 

 culture de Bretagne (SODAB), which became an independent society in 

 1976 upon CNEXO' s sponsorship of the Unite Regionale de Development 

 de 1' Aquaculture (URDA). The group of URDA in northern France is 

 called URDA-NORD; the other, which specializes in aquaculture in the 

 Mediterranean area, is called URDA-SUD. URDA sponsors centers in both 

 the north and south of France called Demonstration, Experimentation, 

 et Valorisation de 1' Aquaculture (DEVA). 



CNEXO' s program include Etudes des Moyens Spatiaux et Aeriens de 

 1' Ocean (ESPADON) and the development of Navires Oceanographiques 

 de Recherches, d' Observation, d' Intervention et de Soutien (NOROIS). 



In 1977 CNEXO, in cooperation with the Compagnie Generale Maritime 

 (CGM) and the Compagnie des Moyens de Surface Adaptes a 1' Ocean 

 (SURF) established the Groupement d'Interet Economique pour la 

 Gestion des Navires Oceanologiques (GENAVIR). 



France's navy or Marine Nationale includes a Centre d' Etudes et 

 de Recherches Techniques Sous-Marines (CERTSM), a Groupe d' Etudes et 

 de Recherches Sous-Marine (GERS), and the Groupe d' Intervention sous 

 la Mer (GISMER). It is responsible for the Service Hydrographique 

 et Oceanographique de la Marine (SHOM) whose Establissement Principal 

 is known as EPSHOM and which includes a Bureau d' Etudes Oceanogra- 

 phiques (BEO). 



The Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP), established in the 1950' s, 

 is concerned with problems related to offshore exploration for oil 

 and gas. IFP maintains a documentation center. The Reseau National 

 d' Observation de la Qualite du Mileu Marin (RNO) maintains 

 a systematic surveillance of the coastal waters of France. The Centre 

 Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) sponsors a group called 

 MEDIPROD, the Biological Station at Roscoff, and a Centre pour 1' Etude 

 Oceanographique et Biologique Marine (CEOBM). The Office de la 

 Recherche Sc^ientif ique et Technique d'Outre-Mer (ORSTOM) sponsors 

 centers at D^kar, Senegal; Pointe-Noire, Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Noumea, 



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