Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Antarctic Research Series, Volume 43. This is the first oceanology volume of the Antarctic Research Series to be devoted to the continental shelf. That region is of special interest because of its great depth and its climatic role in the production of sea ice, ventilation of the deep ocean, and wastage of the Antarctic ice sheet. Sea ice persists along much of the continental shelf during the austral summer, so that shipboard observations there have often been difficult and sometimes dangerous. Fortunately, time series measurements from bottom-moored instruments and analyses of satellite imagery are beginning to supplement the data that can be collected on summer expeditions. Geochemical tracers, high-resolution vertical profiling instruments and computer modeling are also providing new insights into the continental shelf circulation.