About Marine Science

Marine Science is about the scientific investigation of the largest domain on the planet - the oceans, seabed and surrounding coast, including their physical, biological and dynamic attributes. Marine Science therefore incorporates marine biology, marine ecology, marine geology, oceanography, coastal geomorphology, and ocean and coastal management .

Australia is the most "marine" nation in the world. Not only does Australia have a long coastline, spanning both tropical and temperate latitudes as well as Antarctic territories, but its marine Exclusive Economic Zone, over which Australia has sovereignty and which surrounds continental Australia, is larger in territory than the continent of Australia and is the largest national EEZ in the world.

Sydney, as Australia's major coastal city and seaport, is ideally placed for the study of marine science, and at the University of Sydney such studies commenced back in the 1880's. The Marine Studies Centre was established in 1970 and the new University of Sydney Institute of Marine Science (USIMS) in 2002. Many areas of expertise can be found within USIMS, including temperate and tropical marine biology, coastal ecology, seabed dynamics, evolution of continental margins, marine engineering and mechanatronics, marine Geographic Information Science (GIS), and simulation and visualization of marine processes.