ScientificAmerican.com has selected the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Ocean Explorer Web site (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov) as a winner of its 2003 Sci/Tech Web Awards, one of only five sites in the Earth and Environment category. Ocean Explorer provides direct access to current information on a series of NOAA scientific and educational explorations and activities in the marine environment. NOAA is an agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Debuting in April 2001, the Ocean Explorer Web site targets audiences who wish to learn about, discover and virtually explore the ocean realm. It contains more than 4,500 pages of essays, videos and images covering an extensive range of ocean exploration topics. The site has over 200 contributors representing a wide range of ocean disciplines. Suitable for classroom activities, the education section of the Web site provides 85 lesson plans that meet National Science Education Standards.

Each year, the magazine's editors review more than 1,000 Web sites from around the world and select the 50 that they deem the “most innovative, creative, and valuable as science and technology resources for (their) readers.” Ocean Explorer shares company with other 2003 winning sites including PBS's "Voyage of the Odyssey," the Royal Institution of Great Britain's "Molecular Universe" and Rice University's "Galileo Project."

ScientificAmerican.com says of NOAA Ocean Explorer in its review, “Ocean Explorer is full of buried treasure: Visit the Aquarius Habitat, the world’s only undersea laboratory; inspect submarine volcanoes in the western Pacific; and observe rare whale species off Puerto Rico. All these explorations are presented in rich multimedia formats.”

During 2003, NOAA Ocean Explorer will follow ocean expeditions to the Pacific’s Submarine Ring of Fire, the Puerto Rico Trench, and the Kick’em Jenny Volcano, the most active volcano in the Caribbean. Other missions will explore the oldest seamount chain in the North Atlantic, and dive on deep-water corals and sensitive marine habitats in the South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

NOAA National Ocean Service balances environmental protection with economic prosperity in fulfilling its mission of promoting safe navigation, supporting coastal communities, sustaining coastal habitats and mitigating coastal hazards.

The Commerce Department’s NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation s coastal and marine resource.

On the Web:

NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov

NOAA National Ocean Service: http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov

NOAA Ocean Explorer: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/

Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/