This paper has three major aims: First, to put the problems lumped under the rubric “Coastal Zone Management,”; in perspective; second, to set out a general framework for the construction of coastal zone management models; and third, to discuss institutional problems, particularly those involved in organizing coastal zone research and in transferring the results of that research to the managers and social decision‐makers. A fundamental point is that many of the problems commonly discussed in the context of the coastal zone are conceptually the same as “inland”; problems with a long history of research and applied management. While there are complications introduced by the peculiarities of the marine and estuarial environment, it is hardly necessary to begin as though nothing were known. Those problems involving large‐scale natural systems such as ocean currents, marine fisheries and tropical storms, are, however, unique in the coastal zone. These problems also are properly managed at the national level, and a sensible organization for research probably should involve expansion of NOAA's facilities, particularly in the direction of the social sciences.