Founded in 1958, the National Marine Data and Information Service under the State Oceanic Administration is a national comprehensive department for research on marine information technologies and service for public benefit. It was approved by the International Council of Scientific Unions as the third oceanographic data center established after those in the United States and the Former Soviet Union. It has established cooperative relations with over 170 organizations and institutions in 35 countries.

The major tasks of the Service are to organize and coordinate the national work on marine data and scientific and technological information, take charge of the collection, processing, storage and service of various kinds of marine information, establish a variety of marine databases, and provide different marine information products and service.

It has nine operational offices and one printing house. It boasts a staff of 547, including 63 researchers with senior titles and 184 with intermediate titles.

It is equipped with computers and various computer-aided facilities, a disk search system, audio-video equipment, a laser printing system and so on. These advanced devices not only lay the foundation for the computerization and networking of the information research, but also create better conditions for services. Its library has a collection of 42,000 MB oceanographic data, 70,000 books in Chinese and foreign languages, more than 30,000 reports, 3,000 kinds of Chinese and foreign periodicals, and a large number of audio-video tapes that record about 400,000 foreign excerpts.

The National Marine Data and Information Service has achieved a lot of research fruits. Its Survey Report on China's Ocean in 2000 and The Antarctic Expedition Information Study won the national second prize of Scientific and Technological Information Achievements. Development of Coastal Zone and Adjacent Sea Areas won the second prize for Scientific and Technological Progress awarded by the State Education Commission. Study on the Beibu Gulf Delimitation Plan and English-Chinese Dictionary of Marine Science and Technology won the second prize for Scientific and Technological Progress awarded by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), and so on.