From the days of discovery and colonization, America has looked to the sea. In times of stress the sea has been our ally, and in times of peace, a source of our prosperity. Sometimes hostile and sometimes generous in its moods, the ocean always has offered its abundant resources in countless ways. But only recently have we begun to perceive its true potential. The driving force and urgency of our new concern for the sea stem from the changing character of the world itself-from mounting economic needs, from congested populations, from our own deteriorating shores. It is now nearly 10 years since reports by the National Academy of Science and the U.S. Navy focused attention upon the vital import of our undeveloped marine resources. The intervening decade has been marked by a mounting interest and activity. Further reports, studies, and statements have poured forth in profusion, representing the experience, the views, and the best judgment of the outstanding experts of the country. Throughout this period a voluminous legislative record testifies also to a growing Congressional concern, which culminated in June 1966 in the Marine Resources and Engineering Development Act, expressing a conviction and defining a national purpose: 1) a conviction that the time had arrived for this country to give serious and systematic attention to our marine environment and to the potential resources of the oceans, and 2) a national determination to take the steps necessary to stimulate marine exploration, science, technology, and financial investment on a vastly augmented scale.