The first meeting of the Steering Committee (SC) of IIOE-2 was held at the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre, located in the grounds of the University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia during Thursday 2 February to Saturday 4 February 2017. This meeting was held back-to-back with the integrated set of Annual Meetings of IOGOOS, IOP, SIBER & IRF and a special Bio-Argo Workshop, commencing Monday 30 January 2017.