This bibliography is the result of surveys conducted by consultants, United Nations Agencies (UNESCO/UN-DIESA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in order to identify the scientific literature relevant to the programme set forth in the action plan for the protection and development of the marine environment and coastal areas of the West and Central African region. The references have been edited and classified by UNESCO/UN-DIESA/UNEP experts without reference to the original material. This process is necessarily subject to error but it is nevertheless felt that the bibliographical references collected in the survey are of sufficient interest and utility to those working in the field of marine environment in this region to justify publication. Each bibliographic reference has been assigned an accession number and this is printed together with the list of the authors, the title of the publication in its original language, the publication year, publisher and publication details and a list of the subject classifications applicable. The subject classification list follows this introduction. Each publication or article appears in the following classified listing under every subject to which it was considered directly relevant. Thus, articles which contain references to topics in a number of classifications will appear in several places in the classified list, each time in accession number order. The final section is an author index. This shows, for each author, the subject classifications referenced and the accession numbers of his or her publications relevant to that subject group.