This course is an introduction to oceanography that focuses on the interaction between organisms and their physical environment. The course incudes discussions of ocean basins, major currents and water property distributions; properties of seawater: equation of state, temperature and salinity analysis; basic dynamical ideas: hydrostatic balance, Coriolis force, geostrophy, turbulence; forcing of the ocean: solar radiation, winds, heat and freshwater fluxes; Ekman transport; the observed ocean: major currents, gyres, meridional overturning, eddies, sill flows, upwelling, monsoons, equatorial motions, El Ni�o, marginal seas; time dependence: inertial oscillations, long gravity waves, Rossby waves; tides: astronomical forcing, basin modes, local resonances, tidal mixing. The course includes a practical portion focusing on oceanographic measurements and will include a small field effort. Analysis and reporting of the results from this effort is a requirement of the course.