Published in 1986, this book contains significant wave height and zero crossing period statistics for 104 sea areas covering the worlds oceans.

The wave height/period scatter tables contained in the book derive from visual observations reported by merchant vessels of the Voluntary Observing Fleet. But this data has been quality controlled and quality enhanced by BMT's well-validated NMIMET procedure. Visual observations are the only truly globally homogeneous set of wind/wave observations with a sufficiently long observational history to give reliable climatic statistics, and BMT's quality-enhancing NMIMET process has demonstrated good agreement with long-term instrumental records around the world.

The data covers the oceans of the world with 104 sea areas. The data from each sea area is split down into four seasons of the year (plus the whole year), and 8 directional sectors (plus all directions).