Editor's note: I have asked a number people from different facets oceanography to reflect on the greatest opportunities and challenges facing ocean sciences in the final decade of this century. Here we present four essays highlighting individual outlooks for the 1990s.

• Outlook for the 1990s, by D. James Baker
• Biological Oceanography: Past, Present, and Future, by John J. Cullen
• Major Challenges in Chemical Oceanography, by Ellen R.M. Druffel
• Physical Oceanography in the 1990s, by Donald B. Olson

Baker, D.J., J.J. Cullen, E.R.M. Druffel, and D.B. Olson. 1990. Charting the future. Oceanography 3(1):50, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1990.22.

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