Introduction

In order to demonstrate the promise of ocean policy dictated by our government, the College of Hydrosphere Science was established in February, 2004 when and the Institute was upgraded to the National Kaohsiung Marine University. Our primary educational mission is to cultivate the professionals in the fields of marine biotechnology, fisheries production and management, as well as preservation and utilization of the aquatic resource. The organization of our college includes four departments, committees, laboratories, shared instrument laboratory, as well as research and service centers. The brief illustration is as follows:

(I) Department

The college consists of 4 departments, the Department of Fishery Production and Management & Graduate School, the Department of Seafood Science & Graduate School, the Department of Aquaculture & Graduate School, the Department of Marine Biotechnology & Graduate School. There are 59 full-time teachers, and among of them are 12 professors, 22 associate professors, 9 assistant professors, and 16 lecturers. 73% of the faculty members are full-time assistant professors and above. The 4-year bachelor degrees in the four fields are the main classes in our college, and the graduate programs are offered by the Department of Seafood Science, the Department of Fishery Production and Management and the Department of Marine Biotechnology. The quantities of class in the college are listed in the table 1. The graduates may develop their career in many fields; they may be employed in colleges, fishery vocational schools, other education units, private companies, governmental fishery organizations, port authorities, fishery research units, health centers, food factories, and biotechnology firms, etc. Also they may carry on their advanced study in Taiwan or other countries. Many of our former graduates have been given good responses from fishery and seafood industries.

(II) Committee

The college consists of 5 committees, such as College meeting, Committee of Teacher Judgment, Committee of Course, Committee of College Development and Director meeting.

(III) Shared Instrument Laboratories

In order to gather classes for common hands-on experiments in our college, 4 college-level laboratories, "Microscope Center", "Biotech Laboratory", "Biochemical & Molecular Biological Laboratory", and "Microbiology Laboratory", have been set up to integrate instrument resources for teaching.

(IV) Research and Services Center

The research service centers integrate relevant fields of teaching and research and offer services for industries. The affiliated units belong to the college such as "Fishery Development and Promotion (extension) Committee", "Electron Microscope Center", "Seafood Processing Service Center", "Ornamental Fish Center", "Fisheries Inspection Service Center", "Fish Disease Prevention Center", "Set Net Research Center", "Leisure Fishery Center", and "Marine Biotechnology center" which will be upgraded to school-level components in future.