In the summer of 1997, while I was visiting at Woods Hole, Jesse Ausubel, representing the Sloan Foundation, asked me to approach ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) for help with the Census of the Fishes project. I was then chair of the principal science coordinating committee in ICES, and I agreed to take the idea forward. Why ICES ? ICES was the first intergovernmental scientific body. It was founded in 1902 to promote the study of the seas, principally in the North Atlantic, and it now also advises various bodies responsible for managing fisheries and the marine environment in the North Atlantic. ICES has no research funds, but maintains a Secretariat in Copenhagen, with coordinating , database and publishing functions. At the ICES Annual Science Conference (ASC) each fall, scientists give papers, discuss new ideas, and propose member country participation in programes, workshops, and working groups. ICES therefore has the infrastructure to discuss the scientific, technical and logistic aspects of a project like the Census, and to coordinate input to it, provided this is agreed by the national delegates and fundholders.
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