The Institute of Marine Sciences provides graduate level courses in oceanography. Located on the Mediterranean
coast, a major aim of IMS is to conduct research oriented towards the management of the marine resources through an understanding of the environment. Collaborative investigations in the Mediterranean and the Black seas have been particularly productive towards this goal. Research accomplished by the Physical Oceanography group of IMS in the last 30 years has resulted in a first order increase in our knowledge of the seas surrounding Turkey leading to a valuable knowledge base that can be used in the management of the marine environment. Often, a fundamental understanding of the physical environment is essential before attempting to understand the other aspects. This basic understanding is exclusively supplied by physical oceanography to the other disciplines of ocean and atmospheric sciences.

The mission / objectives of the Physical oceanography group are:
-to determine the mass and energy fluxes in the marine and atmospheric environmenmt wirth respect to the relevant scales, investigate their interactions and contributions to the climate system and construct appropriate geophysical fluid dynamical models,
- to reveal circulation, mixing and transport processes that determine the physical structure, inter-basin transport and ecological functioning of the regional seas *Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara, Black and Caspian Seas, and the Turkish Straits),
- to establish observation systems including advanced satellite remote sensing that enable continuous monitoring of the ocean and atmosphere regional climate variables,
- to develop numerical forecasting and information systems based on observations and modeling,
- to contribute to the national and international knowledge base through continuing analyses of historical and current data on the marine and atmospheric environment,
- to expose and predict the effects of marine and atmospheric physical variability on the pollution, transport, biogeochemical and ecosystem dynamical processes.

A major emphasis is given to long term, multi-national cooperative studies, providing basin wide comprehensive data sets for analyses. Basic education and on-board training on these subjects and methods are provided to graduate students recruited from areas of basic science and engineering.