For the ICES civil engineering software package see COGO.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) (Conseil International de l'Exploration de la Mer (CIEM) in French) was established on July 22, 1902 in Copenhagen by eight northern European nations: Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
ICES today counts twenty member nations (in addition to the eight founding nations, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, France, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania,Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the United States joined over the years) and six affiliate nations with observer status: Australia, Chile, Greece, New Zealand, Peru, and South Africa. In the early years the aim of ICES as a scientific organisation was to work on practical fisheries problems and to serve as a multidisciplinary forum including all disciplines related to marine sciences.
ICES today is a modern intergovernmental organisation that promotes marine research in the North Atlantic.