2003: Two dozen researchers met at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, September 5-7, 2003 to discuss standards for archiving samples from the Census of Marine Life. Specialists representing a variety of taxa were present, as were scientists from a number of Census field projects. The workshop was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Before the workshop, attendees reported information on the costs of archiving biological samples by various means. These data were tabulated and a summary prepared for discussion.

The workshop considered a broad variety of issues about archiving, in the context of differences and similarities among taxa, the desirability and requirements of various techniques, and the resources available to individual researchers and institutions. Attendees reached consensus on a set of recommendations, which were presented in draft form to the CoML Scientific Steering Committee.

2004: A second workshop met at the Academy in Philadelphia, December 10-12, 2004. This smaller group of eight researchers focused on developing more detailed recommendations for major taxa and updating recommendations on molecular techniques.

This website represents further development of the draft recommendations, based on feedback from the Scientific Steering Committee and a subset of workshop attendees functioning as a working group, with integration of the results of the second workshop.