(1) Get Into It
http://www.yoto98.noaa.gov/
(2) The Year of the Ocean--ENN [RealPlayer]
http://www.yoto.com/
(3) NOAA Fisheries
http://www.nmfs.gov/
(4) National Sea Grant
http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/NSGO/index.html
(5) Coastal Resources Center
http://brooktrout.gso.uri.edu/
(6) The Center for Marine Conservation
http://www.cmc-ocean.org/

This week's In the News section deals with the Year of the Ocean. The six
sites listed above provide information of various types about and related
to this topic. The United Nations declared 1998 as the International Year
of the Ocean to bring attention to the "importance of the marine
environment."

(1) The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration's (NOAA) Get Into It
is a site dedicated to the Year of the Ocean. The NOAA provides fact sheets
on oceanic information, links to additional technical data and facts,
information about individual states' contributions to the project, and
ocean and federal agency links. (2) Managed by the Environmental News
Network, The Year of the Ocean includes daily news clips concerned with the
ocean, a link to the NOAA's site, RealPlayer movies about the marine
environment, and an archived question of the day. (3) NOAA Fisheries,
provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), is the homepage
of the NOAA's Fisheries Department. This site provides information about
what's new at the NMFS, links to NMFS offices throughout the US, and a
legislative guide to pertinent resource laws. (4) The National Sea Grant
program is dedicated to protecting national marine resources. Visitors to
the Sea Grant homepage can search the National Sea Grant Depository housed
at the University of Rhode Island, read selected publications, read about
research sponsored by Sea Grant, or learn about the various funding and
fellowship opportunities. (5) The Coastal Resources Center, located at the
University of Rhode Island, was founded to develop coastal management plans
for Rhode Island, but then expanded into an international scope. The
Center's homepage provides an impressive number of its research reports and
publications online. The Intercoast Network Newsletter provides full text
articles on coastal management. (6) The Center for Marine Conservation
strives to protect the diversity and health of the oceans. The homepage
provides information about the planet and its marine resources, a library
and reference section, and resources for teachers and students. [KH]