The continental shelf seas have an importance out of proportion to the reatively small fraction of the area of the global ocean which they occupy. These shallow seas play and important role as the high energy boundary zones of the deep ocean where much of the ocean's tidal and wave energies are dissipated. The North Sea is an archetypal representative of such seas. This text brings the principal results from the North Sea Project which were presented at a discussion meeting organized by the Royal Society. It argues that we should understand and predict the processes of the North Sea in order...

The continental shelf seas have an importance which is out of proportion to the rela tively small fraction of the area of the global ocean which they occupy. These shallow seas play an important role as the high energy boundary zones of the deep ocean where much of the ocean's tidal and wave energies are dissipated. They are highly productive biologically and are responsible for most of the world's fishery production. In many cases, they are also sources of economically important resources, notably hydrocarbons and they are frequently important as thorough fares for merchant shipping. Because...