Metadata is data about data. It is a form of description about items such as documents, audio and images. It could also describe relationships and the rest of the workings of applications. Metadata can be automatically created when the item is created. Metadata can also be manually created. It can be edited and deleted as well.

Metadata is also useful in marine science especially in the area of research. Like in all researches, data and test results need to be organized and managed. Metadata would be helpful not only in organizing data but it would be helpful in facilitating easier and faster searches and data retrieval as well. 

That is why the Marine Metadata Interoperability Project is so focused on this. The main concern and aim of the project is to encourage collaboration in marine science research. In order to facilitate collaboration it is the aim of the project to simplify the complex metadata used in marine science research. It is working towards the provision of good and straightforward guides. It also works to give the best data resources for data management. Most of all, the Marine Metadata Interoperability Project works to develop advanced metadata tools and metadata services for the marine science research community.

The project acknowledges that the key to collaboration and interoperability is having and speaking the same language. And so metadata managers in this field are working to establish a common vocabulary. A shared terminology is being established so that two or more systems can become interoperable. With interoperable systems, collaboration would then hopefully be facilitated. Researches in the area of marine science would be more progressive and productive.