With this issue we bid farewell, with much thanks, to Chuck Nittrouer, who has borne the task of editing Oceanography for the last two years. His fine solo performance will be followed, with no intermission, by our duo composition. (No, there are no plans for an expansion to trios, quartets, and higher symphonic creations.) Larry was senior editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research/Oceans and is a member at large of the TOS Council. Connie is the former marine geology/geophysics councilor. Both of us suspect that we are gluttons for punishment, but the show must go on. The editorial office will be located at Old Dominion University, staffed by Larry’s assistant Anne West-Valle. Questions concerning the magazine may be directed to either one of us, or to Anne.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Try to Fix It
We subscribe wholeheartedly to this philosophy (as well as to Oceanography). Dave Brooks and Chuck have developed a format for this magazine that fills a special niche in our multidisciplinary field. Notice that it is a “magazine”, rather than a “journal”. The TOS Council chose the term to emphasize that Oceanography is not just another specialized technical journal. It is the publication that allows oceanographers to communicate with each other across the disciplinary boundaries. To achieve that goal, we expect to work closely with authors to remove jargon, to simplify concepts, to focus upon communicating the excitement of new insights and discoveries, uncluttered by distracting details.

So What’s New?
Our principal new goal, initiated under Chuck, is to increase the number of issues to four per year, of which one will be a special-topic issue. The basic rule of publishing is “No papers, no publish”, so we need more contributions if we are to achieve this goal. Surely each one of you has something you would like to see get the wider readership you know you deserve. Perhaps you’ve been pursuing one topic for several years in a series of papers. Now may be the time to write a summary, with new insights you’ve gained since the early work. We also seek opinions, comment, or anything else that will give new insight to our field.

A Grand Finale
Think of us as your conductors, and yourselves as the musicians and composers. Send us your creations, be they classical, jazz, folk, or rock (we draw the line at rap). We’ll help you with tuning and harmonic arrangement, so that the pure melody of thought comes clearly through. Let’s make beautiful music together.

— Larry Atkinson and Connie Sancetta

Atkinson, L., and C. Sancetta. 1993. Quarterdeck: Hail and farewell. Oceanography 6(2):34, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1993.15.

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