Institute for Ocean Management was set up in 1985 as an Ocean Data Center with financial assistance from the Government of Tamil Nadu. The main activities of the Center are, to coordinate in research, dissemination of information and development of interaction with multi-disciplinary groups and user industries working in coastal issues. The Data Center was then combined with the Center for Water Resources and functioned as the Center for Water Resources and Ocean Management from 1995. From 1998, the Institute for Ocean Management (IOM), the first of its kind in the country, has been established with a view to face the challenges of meeting the increasing resource demands in ocean and coastal resources utilization, coastal management and to train adequate manpower, in these areas, in the years to come. The problems of Indian coast, related to beach erosion; sedimentation; siltation of river mouths, lakes and ports; environmental degradation; pollution; mangrove deforestation; protection of marine parks; degradation of coral reefs: loss of biodiversity in the coastal zone etc., Rational utilisation of ocean and coastal resources and proper management are required to meet the sustainable growth.