from both programs are transmitted in real time to 

 support ASWEPS and fisheries forecasts. 



Polar data collection is performed in both the 

 Arctic and Antarctic by the eight icebreakers, 

 which comprise the Federal fleet of this class of 

 ship. Data is provided to the Navy and the ocean- 

 ographic community. The International Ice Patrol 

 oceanographic operations are conducted on and 

 near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, with re- 

 search cruises into the Atlantic sub-Arctic regions. 



Another source of real-time and research data 

 is the Shallow Water Oceanographic Research 

 Data (SWORD) System. The partially operational 

 SWORD System consists of a network of Coast 

 Guard coastal facilities. The complete system 

 will include offshore light towers and associated 

 buoy arrays, large navigational buoys equipped 

 with environmental sensors, coastal stations, and 

 light ships. 



The Coast Guard's data processing and quality 

 control capabihties are concentrated at its Ocean- 

 ographic Unit (CGOU) in Washington, D.C. As 

 more computers are made available to operating 

 units, the data collection units will be able to 

 perform their own data processing, and dis- 

 seminate more data directly. Processed data is 

 either transmitted directly from data collection 

 units or from CGOU, over the Coast Guard radio 

 and landline communications network to users 

 and the National Oceanographic Data Center. 



To promote maritime safety, the Coast Guard 

 cooperates with ESSA by broadcasting coastal ma- 

 rine weather information to shipping and other 

 maritime users at 31 locations. These broadcasts 

 were established to fill gaps in commercial radio 

 station coverage and constitute a major effort by 

 the facilities concerned. Broadcasts are scheduled 

 at 6- or 12-hour intervals, with warnings of 

 hazardous conditions transmitted upon receipt and 

 repeated periodically. The broadcast texts are 

 prepared by ESSA and delivered to the nearest 

 Coast Guard communications office. There are 

 163 Coast Guard lighthouses, lifeboat stations, 

 lightships, and other facilities participating in the 

 Coastal Warning Display System. The Coast Guard 

 provides support to existing data platforms in 

 stationing, servicing, and relieving activities. The 

 Coast Guard also conducts ice reconnaissance on 

 the Great Lakes. 



D. Department of the Interior 



Environmental monitoring and research and 

 development programs to provide the rationale for 

 prediction are extensive, and include work of the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and Bureau of 

 Sport Fisheries and Wildlife of the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, the Federal Water Pollution Con- 

 trol Administration, and the Geological Survey. 

 The role of environmental monitoring in Interior is 

 to provide for: 



—Prediction of abundance and distribution of 

 fishery resources 



—Pollution detection and control 



—Water resource development and appraisal 



—Detection of geologic processes 



—Measurement of pesticide and radionuclide con- 

 centration in living marine resources. 



The Department's programs are oriented 

 toward the missions listed above. The Department 

 recognizes the marine environment as a unit and 

 encourages the study of meteorological and 

 physical oceanographic and biological processes as 

 a system to facilitate understanding of the 

 mechanisms involved in the biological productivity 

 of the world oceans and their temporal and spatial 

 variations. 



1. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF) 



The objective of Interior's fishery ocean- 

 ography program is to determine, for each major 

 fishery, how the environment affects the abund- 

 ance and distribution of the species and how 

 changes in significant environmental features can 

 be predicted. Because of the many different 

 habitats of the fishery resources ranging from the 

 tropical near-surface schooling tuna to the 

 bottom-dwelling king crab of the boreal latitudes 

 and to the estuarine-dependent shrimp, the De- 

 partment's oceanographic interests cover an ex- 

 tensive geographic range. Consequently, the sup- 

 porting oceanographic research and development 

 programs are equally extensive, including studies 

 of: 



—Dynamics of the North Pacific, Pacific Equa- 

 torial, and California Current Systems by using 

 drift buoys, research vessels, and associated sensors. 



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