LETTER OF SUBMITTAL 
FEDERAL COUNCIL FOR 
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 
INTERAGENCY COMMITTEE ON 
MARINE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, 
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, 
Rockville, Md., October 21, 1974. 
Hon. Ernest F. Hones, 
U.S. Senate, 
Washington, D.C. 
Dear SENATOR Houuines: I am transmitting with this letter the 
report on Ocean Data Resources requested of the Interagency Com- 
ia on Marine Science and Engineering in your May 10, 1974, 
etter. 
With the establishment of NOAA in 1970, the National Ocean- 
ographic Data Center and National Climatic Center were united 
under NOAA’s Environmental Data Service (EDS). Thus, the 
primary national data centers for ocean and atmosphere were joined 
in a single agency, as recommended by the Commission on Marine 
Science, Engineering, and Resources. 
Recognizing that increasingly larger quantities of marine environ- 
mental data (and samples) were being collected, and that special 
attention would be needed to insure that these data would become 
fully available to secondary users, the ICMSE promulgated a State- 
ment of Interagency Policy for Marine Data and Information Manage- 
ment in May 1972. The policy statement is included in the Appendix. 
Today, EDS provides a national mechanism by which interdisci- 
plinary environmental data collected by many agencies, private 
sources, and other nations are made available to the general user 
community once the initial collection purposes have been served. 
The EDS marine data user community includes Federal agencies, 
State and local governments, industry, colleges and universities, 
regional environmental councils and commissions, the general public, 
and the international community. World Data Center-A, Oceanog- 
raphy, is co-located with the National Oceanographic Data Center, 
Washington, D.C.; (World Data Center—B, Oceanography, is located 
in Moscow, USSR). Recently, in addition to providing traditional 
data services, EDS increasingly has been called upon to contribute 
to the solution of such problems as the energy crisis. National efforts 
in this area are concentrated in the coastal zone, where efficient and 
effective planning, site selection, design, construction, and operation of 
all facilities depend heavily upon interdisciplinary, historical, or 
“baseline” data. Such data are also needed to predict and assess the 
impact on the environment of such things as accidental oil spills. 
(1X) 
41-658—75——_2 
