AbstractA requisite for rational Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) resource management is the continued integration of marine science and policy. Policymakers will increasingly need reliable scientific information as national borders expand seaward and as technology affords greater access to more marine resources. Developments in marine science should open new concepts of ocean and resource use, and these in turn will pose new sets of policy issues. Some of the science‐policy possibilities include:1. Expanding our knowledge of global ocean circulation, thus improving fish stock assessment, weather prediction, and innovative energy use;2. continuing pollution research with a focus on the limits of acceptable degradation of an environment (including the problems of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere);3. integrating the discovery and eventual exploitation of marine minerals with the environmental, legal, and political constraints; and4. ensuring access to all areas of the ocean for marine science research in light of the stringent conditions imposed by some nations on research in their territorial seas and bvexclusive economic zones.