The chemical characterization of seawaters by trace-element content usually requires selective preconcentration to produce samples suitable for analysis. Phase-distribution methods which have been used for this purpose are briefly reviewed. Evaporation of the water produces a solid sufficiently concentrated for highly sensitive neutron activation techniques. Liquid-solid and liquid-liquid phase distribution provide greater concentration factors and selectivity and are used in conjunction with less sensitive methods of analysis. A simple procedure involving coprecipitation with alkaline earth salts followed by solvent extraction of transition-metal dithiocarbamates is proposed for use aboard ships at sea. With this procedure, recoveries of manganese, iron, nickel, cobalt, US. Atomic Energy Commission. It was the subject of contributed paper number 83 at the Symposium on Trace Characterization Chemical and Physical, conducted by the National Bureau ofstandards, Gaithersburg, Md., October 3 to 7,1966. Reference to the work of Cyrus Feldman and T . C. Rains on the collection and flame photometric determination of cesium [Anal Chem. 36, 405-9 (1964)] was inadvertently omitted from the section on sorption and from Literature Cited.