Oceanography: The Present and Future is the proceedings of a sym­ posium held at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on September 29-0ctober 2, 1980 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Institution. The symposium was immediately preceded by the Third International Congress on the History of Oceanography, also held at Woods Hole, and the proceedings of that Congress, Oceanography: The Past, also published by Springer-Verlag, forms a companion volume to this book. The editorial responsibilities were handled by Ms. Kate Eldred, who worked extraordinarily hard on this volume, while the scientific editing was performed by Dr. Peter G. Brewer. The organizing committee of scientists charged with responsibility for the symposium was: Dr. Peter G. Brewer, chemistry; Dr. Arthur E. Maxwell, geology and geophysics; Dr. Robert W. Morse, marine policy; Dr. David A. Ross, marine policy and marine geology; Dr. Peter B. Rhines, physical oceanography; Dr. John A. Teal, marine biology; and Dr. Robert Spindel, ocean engineering. They were faced at the outset with the problem that science proceeds with intense effort and competition within a disciplinary peer group but that, particularly in ocean science, the results of this work often have com­ pletely unforseen and important consequences in a totally unrelated area.