Ch. 7— Federal Programs for Collecting and Managing Oceanographic Data • 257 



all of the old data into this system, and some old 

 strip charts and hand tabulations continue to be 

 used. NOS also maintains wave data, but there is 

 now no adequate archival system. Within the NOS 

 Office of Oceans and Atmospheric Research, the 

 Sea Grant Program and the two regional labora- 

 tories^^ collect data as well. These efforts tend to 

 be more in the mode of exploratory short-term data 

 collection rather than multi-year systematic surveys. 



The Strategic Assessment Branch. — The Stra- 

 tegic Assessment Branch (SAB) of the NOAA Of- 

 fice of Oceanography and Marine Assessment con- 

 ducts comprehensive, interdisciplinary assessments 

 of multiple resource uses for the EEZ to determine 

 marine resource development strategies which will 

 benefit the Nation and minimize environmental 

 damage or conflicts among users. ^' 



SAB is producing a series of four regional adases 

 (see figure 7-1) whose maps combine the physical, 

 chemical, and biological characteristics of resources 

 and their environments with their economic, envi- 

 ronmental quality, and jurisdictional aspects. The 

 four atlases cover: 



• the U.S. East Coast; 



• the Gulf of Mexico; 



• the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort 

 Seas; and 



• the U.S. west coast and Gulf of Alaska. 



The maps cover a range of topics on physical and 

 biological environments (geology, surface temper- 

 atures, aquatic vegetation . . .), more than 300 spe- 

 cies of living marine resources (invertebrates, fishes, 

 birds, mammals . . .), economic activities (popu- 

 lation distribution, seafood production . . .), envi- 

 ronmental quality (release of oil and grease dis- 

 charge, bacteria . . .), and jurisdictions (political 

 boundaries, environmental quality management 

 areas . . .). In addition, each map is also in digital 

 form in a computer data system with supporting 

 software that provides the capability to prepare 

 composite maps for combinations of species, life his- 

 tory, etc.^^ This capability may be used by visit- 

 ing investigators. 



^*The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the Atlantic 

 Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. 



"C.N. Ehler, D.J. Basta, T.F. LaPointe, and M.A. Warren, "New 

 Oceanic and Coastal Adases Focus on Potential EEZ Conflicts," 

 Oceans 29 (3), 1986, pp. 42-51. 



"Two examples are shown in ch. 6, figures 3 and 4. 



About 200 copies of the U.S East Coast Atlas 

 of 125 maps were published in 1980.3^ The Gulf 

 of Mexico Atlas (163 four-color maps) was printed 

 in 1985; the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas 

 Atlas {127 maps) will be printed late in 1987. The 

 West Coast and Gulf of Alaska Atlas is scheduled 

 for 1988 publication. 



A "national" atlas of 20 maps on the health and 

 use of coastal waters of the United States is also 

 being produced. The first five maps published were: 

 Ocean Disposal Sites, Estuarine Systems, Oil Pro- 

 duction, Dredging Activities, and NOAA's iVa- 

 tional Status and Trends Program . Future maps 

 are scheduled on hazardous waste sites, marine 

 mammals, fisheries management areas and other 

 similar topics. 



Other SAB activities include an economic sur- 

 vey of outdoor marine recreation, a national coastal 

 pollutant discharge inventory, a national estuarine 

 inventory, a national coastal wedands database, and 

 a shoreline characterization. 



National Marine Fisheries Service 



The work of the National Marine Fisheries Serv- 

 ice (NMFS) is done by 5 regional offices, 4 fish- 

 eries research centers, and 20 laboratories. The 

 NMFS mission is: 1) to carry out national and in- 

 ternational conservation and management of liv- 

 ing marine resources, 2) to encourage the utiliza- 

 tion and development of U.S. domestic fisheries 

 and fisheries resources, and 3) to conduct bio- 

 environmental and socioeconomic research. Work 

 that results in the production of EEZ oceanographic 

 data is largely carried out by the laboratories of the 

 four fisheries centers. Some NMFS data are made 

 available to and become part of the NODC ar- 

 chives. 



The NMFS has an automatic data processing 

 Telecommunications Long-Range Plan, initiated 

 in 1981. Currently, there is active interaction be- 

 tween the Seattle and Miami centers and among 

 the North East Region laboratories. The Office of 

 Management and Budget has approved funds to 

 provide for a major upgrade of the system during 

 fiscal years 1988 and 1989. Most of the "traffic" 

 consists of data on catch efforts, socioeconomic fac- 



^^Now out-of-print. 



