Abstract: Marine survey is the basis for marine sciences. Survey components and demand have been developed with input from blooming new technology and research methods. Also, the related products gradually become highly professional, diversified and international. Thus it will be necessary to develop international standards for marine survey. Here we compare the differences of strategies, organizations, standard systems and the published marine survey standards among China, the United States and the European Union. It is suggested to bring China national marine survey standards into the international market by: (1) learning from the American standardization system which features free-competition; (2) learning from the European standardization system which has perfectly met the requirements of international community; (3) the better bridge of ISO/TC8/SC13 (Marine technology subcommittee of International Organization for Standardization).

Key words: marine survey technology, standards, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)