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Shallow coastal waters support juvenile stages for most of our fish and crustaceans. They arealso the focus of cemmercial and recreational fishing activities.

This textbook was designed with three main objectives: 1) To impart and understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of ocean sciences while focusing on ocean processes and how they are connected to our lives. 2) To present a flexible framework to meet the needs of the different curicula and course lengths in different schools and departments. 3) To be suitable to the needs of the extraordinarily wide range of students who take ocean science courses. Such students range from non-science majors with varying science and math skills to science majors who may go on to take advance courses in different aspects of ocean sciences. Introduction to Ocean Sciences meets these three objectives through the use of a number of organizational and pedagogical features that have been incorporated into the text, with both students and instructors in mind.

Our planet faces many serious environmental problems, among them global climate change, soil erosion and pollution. Around the world humans are responsible for a worsening trend of net loss in the amount of wild and natural habitats that cover the planet.

The recent financial crisis confronting the Asian ans Pacific region, as well as problems of forest fires and atmospheric haze, confirms that development is not a linear process, but can be slowed and interrupted by unexpected shocks and setbacks.