370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN mSTTTUTION, 1964 



know what the direction of change might be. For example, if warm 

 water were pumped, as has been suggested, into the Arctic Basin 

 through the Bering Strait, would the warming be beneficial or would 

 so much more snow come to Canada as to reduce the habitable land 

 area? With the observations from the oceanographic network and 

 by varying certain factors put into the forecasting, we could conduct 

 experiments to see what would happen before we try it. 



Climate control by cloud seeding is more the province of the mete- 

 orologist, but anyone who has gone to sea knows how clouds hover over 

 the edges of the Gulf Stream, for example. By influencing the re- 

 flectivity and absorptivity of the sea surface, or of sea ice in polar 

 regions, we may be able to redistribute the clouds, even break up an 

 area in the tropics which may be the breeding place of a hurricane. 

 Or, alternatively, for offensive purposes, we might encourage the 

 generation of the hurricane. Such control of weather can be used 

 either way for warlike or peaceful purposes. 



We may even speculate about control of whole seas. In special 

 cases such as the Mediterranean, the connection to the deep Atlantic 

 is blocked by a comparatively shallow sill, so the Mediterranean is 

 nutrient poor because the inflow of the phophorus rich deeper Atlantic 

 water is dammed. With controlled atomic explosives tliis dam might 

 be removed, increasing the productivity of the whole Mediterranean 

 Sea. 



Just as we now accept complete surveillance as one of the important 

 deterrents to war and have built elaborate air surveillance networks 

 and are negotiationg for international seismological surveillance sys- 

 tems on land, so our sonar and other means of keeping track and iden- 

 tifying every vessel, surface or submarine, military or commercial, in 

 the sea must be perfected. Perhaps international surveillance systems 

 may come about by agreement between nations. 



Oceanography has for many years set a pattern of international 

 cooperation in studying the seas. The kind of survey work necessary 

 to assess all marine resources is one that is too great for any one 

 nation. It should be done internationally. 



Another urgently needed international project in the oceans is to 

 set aside presently uninhabited islands and their surromiding waters 

 as international sea wilderness areas. Examples are Inaccessible and 

 Nightingale Island in the Tristan da Cunha group, Bouvet in the 

 South Atlantic, and numerous Pacific islands. This should be done 

 soon so that the continuity of marine and sea bird wildlife may be 

 preserved before the pressures of population cause the islands to be 

 inhabited and thus upset the balance of these last natural sanctuaries. 



The freedom of the seas has been jealousy preserved over the ages. 

 But as we take more from the sea, not just along our shorelines but 

 from the open ocean, we shall need more international agreements, 



