FOREWORD 
During the December 1963 meeting of the Committee for the 
Scientific Exploration of the Atlantic Shelf (SEAS), it was suggested 
that a storage and retrieval system for Drift Bottle Data be set up 
at the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC). The suggestion 
received the full support of the SEAS Committee. 
For the past several months, personnel at the NODC, under the 
guidance of Dean Bumpus of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and 
John Norcross of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, have 
developed a provisional system for the storage and retrieval of drift 
bottle data. 
This provisional publication provides instructions for reporting 
reduced release and release-recovery drift bottle data either on the 
NODC coding form or punch card. 
This Center welcomes comments and suggestions regarding this 
provisional system as well as the receipt of drift bottle data pre- 
pared utilizing the NODC coding forms or NODC punch card. Reduced 
drift bottle data reported on other formats are acceptable if the 
data and units are compatible with those of this system. 
W. C. JACOBS 
Director 
National Oceanographic Data Center 
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