An international symposium was convened to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the John Murray Expedition to the Indian Ocean on board the Egyptian research vessel Mabahiss (1933-1934). This report describes the symposium and provides abstracts and syntheses of the papers presented in the various marine scientific disciplines covering the areas of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the adjacent gulfs and seas. Within the framework of the symposium, roundtable discussions were organized to identify gaps in marine scientific knowledge in these areas and to recommend future cooperative research to fill these gaps. These discussions (which focused on geology and geophysics, physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, pollution, biological oceanography and fisheries, and interdisciplinary studies) led to a series of recommendations which identified research needs in interdisciplinary areas as well as in the major disciplinary fields within marine science. Details of these recommendations are given. List of participants, symposium program, opening speeches, abstracts of the papers presented, and other documentation are provided in 14 appendices. (Author/JN)