1.  Each competing team consists of a coach (see the Coaching Policy section for more details), at least four student members, and in addition may include one student alternate (a team of three is not eligible to compete).

2.  To be eligible to compete, a student must be enrolled for the current school year in grades nine, ten, eleven, or twelve at the team's school or be participating through a student support organization (private, parochial, and home schools are eligible). If a student participates through a student support organization, his/her school must NOT have their own team.

3.  Schools considering establishing a NOSB team should select the regional bowl closest by driving distance to their home site.   If the school location is equidistant between two regional bowl locations, the school may select the preferred bowl location or the bowl location that has availability  for new teams. Once a team has participated in a regional bowl, that bowl then becomes the team’s regional bowl for all future competitions.

Exceptions-

* If a team has been participating in a specific regional bowl prior to 2009, the team is permitted to stay with that bowl location even if another bowl is closer.  However, if a team would prefer to switch to a bowl that is closer to their school location that currently exists or because a new regional bowl location is established, the team must contact their current regional coordinator to request a bowl move.  The team's current regional coordinator will contact the NOSB director at the National office with the request.  The National office will schedule a meeting with both regional coordinators to review the proposal. The requesting team’s coach, the current regional coordinator and the potential new regional coordinator will receive a letter within 3 weeks of the initial request that will state the final outcome.

* Schools within the state of Texas are another exception.  Due to the size and shape of the state and the locations of the regional competitions, the regional coordinators delineated a diagonal line from just south of the city of Houston up to the lower western corner of the panhandle of Texas. Those schools located below the diagonal line attend the Loggerhead Challenge, those schools located above the diagonal line attend the Dolphin Challenge, but the final decision is at the discretion of the regional coordinators of this region.

4.  Participants must be less than 20 years of age or receive a special waiver from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership.

5.  No school may compete in more than one regional competition in a given calendar year and to be eligible for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl Finals, a student must have competed on the same team that won the Regional Ocean Sciences Bowl for that year.

6.  Once the competition day has started the composition of the team must remain static.  Alternate members cannot be "swapped" between "A" and "B" teams from the same school or different schools.

7.  In the spirit of sportsmanship, the National office encourages all teams to remain at their regional competitions through the end of the awards ceremony. Regional coordinators have the wherewithal to enforce this as a rule. Additionally, teams may be disqualified from competing at the regional level at the discretion of the site coordinator(s).

8.  The winning team from each regional tournament is invited to participate at the Finals competition. The following rules apply:

* All forms in the Winners Packet be completed and submitted on the designated dates after the regional competition.

* All teams must arrive and depart on the designated dates and be in attendance throughout the duration of the tournament. If the entire winning regional team is unable to participate in all activities, the second place team will replace them.

Any waiver to these rules must be approved by the National Coordinator, and no waivers will be considered after April 1 of the current year.