Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs

**Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs** **Our Mission** The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) advances U.S. economic and national security by securing American leadership in outer space, the ocean, the poles, fisheries, and the environment. **About Us** Created by Congress in 1973 and formally established by the Department the following year,?OES addresses issues that reach from the depths of the ocean to outer space, and the lands and water between.?For more than five decades, OES has advanced U.S. commercial, economic, and national security interests to ensure American citizens and companies benefit from international opportunities across these domains. OES works to: - Protect outer space and Antarctica for peaceful uses; - Advance the freedom of the seas to safeguard U.S. commercial and military interests; and - Combat wildlife trafficking, illegal logging and mining, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing—activities that fund transnational criminal organizations and harm U.S. industry. OES drives U.S. leadership on the global, regional, and bilateral stage by negotiating and enforcing evidence-based agreements, mobilizing strategic international partnerships, and shaping a foreign policy landscape that accelerates public-private innovation. Through this work, OES protects our environment, atmosphere, and natural resources, while opposing intrusive, costly regulatory approaches that threaten U.S. innovation, competitiveness, and commercial interests. OES also implements elements of the President’s Executive Orders on commercial space, seabed mining, maritime dominance, and seafood competitiveness, and supports Executive Orders on crime and trade.