The First Institute of Oceanography, SOA is a comprehensive oceanographic research institute engaged in applied and basic researches, high technology development and serving the public. The institute aims at promoting the marine science and technology progress and serving the marine management, marine safety and marine economy development and is an important marine science research entity in the national science and technology innovation system. Her main research fields include the distributions and variabilities of natural environmental elements in Chinese seas, their adjacent oceans and polar sea areas, the marine resources and environmental geology, the generating mechanism and prediction method of marine disasters, the variabilities of marine ecology environment, the remote sensing oceanography and marine information system, the assessment, protection and regulation of marine environment, the marine high technology development and marine comprehensive management sciences.

In the past 45 years from her establishment, the institute has been developing into a marine science research institution well-known at home and abroad. The institute now has about 320 senior researchers and is equipped with internationally advanced survey equipments, experimental installations and auxiliary facilities for scientific research. The accomplished national major science and technology thematic projects, national key basic research projects, national tackling key science and technology problem projects, national major and key foundation projects, marine engineering prospecting and development projects and the acquired scientific achievements have demonstrated the international level of her prime work. As an international cooperation window of SOA, the institute has taken charge of many large-scale international cooperation projects, including Sino-US joint study on air-sea interaction in the western tropical Pacific, China-Japan joint study on the Kuroshio, China-France joint study on the sediment transport from the Changjiang River estuary to the Okinawa Trough, China-Korea joint study on ocean circulation dynamics in the Yellow Sea and so on, which enables her to enjoy a high reputation at home and abroad.

Marine science is an important science of the 21st century and needs the mutual efforts, close cooperation and creative work of the whole human society and scientific and technological circles at home and abroad. I hope that this pamphlet can help all walks of life to further understand our institute, promote her development and make still greater contributions to the development of marine science.