33 U.S.C. § 3601 — Purposes

The chapter’s purposes are (1) to establish and maintain a national integrated ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observing system. It includes coordinated federal and nonfederal parts, national Council coordination, regional observing networks, in-place and remote observations, models, technology, data and communications systems, and product-development systems. It must address regional and national information needs, collect key variables, and make data timely and continuously available (A) to the public; (B) for defense, search and rescue, marine commerce, navigation safety, weather and climate forecasting, energy, economic development, ecosystem-based management, safety, and education; (C) to promote public awareness, stewardship, and welfare; (D) to provide easy access and data sharing; (E) to advance science supporting sustainable use, conservation, management, and understanding of healthy resources and food, economic, and national security; and (F) to monitor and model ocean and Great Lakes changes, including chemistry, harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, water levels, and other phenomena; (2) to improve the Nation’s ability to measure, observe, understand, track, and predict weather, climate, natural variability, and ocean-atmosphere interactions, including in the Great Lakes; (3) to sustain, upgrade, and modernize observing infrastructure to detect changes and deliver reliable timely information; and (4) to authorize (A) basic and applied research, testing, and deployment of better coastal and ocean observation technologies, including unmanned maritime systems, models, and capabilities concerning weather, climate, ocean-atmosphere dynamics, global climate change, and the physical, chemical, and biological dynamics of the ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes environments; and (B) conservation of healthy and restoration of degraded coastal ecosystems.