16 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



The cities on the Great Lakes are seaports now. 



Mr. Flynn. That is all. 



Mr. Miller. Do you have any questions, Mr. Chairman ? 



The Chairman. You say it has been agreed by your group and 

 similar groups of other nations to make a study of the Indian Ocean? 



Mr, Vetter. This is a tentative plan that has been discussed by the 

 scientific representatives from other countries on this Special Com- 

 mittee for Ocean Research. I do not think there has been any com- 

 mitment by any nation, or by any of the participants in this group to 

 da this. 



The CiiAiRiMAN. How did they happen to select the Indian Ocean 

 for this study ? 



Mr. Vetter. I think there are several reasons. First of all, the In- 

 dian Ocean is probably the least understood of all of the oceans except 

 possibly the South Pacific. 



Secondly, the Indian Ocean is not as big as the South Pacific, so 

 that you could hope in a year or two of intensive effort to find out 

 enough about it to understand it. 



Thirdly, it supplies sort of a neutral ground for the various nations 

 to meet and get together and study. 



Finally, there are some peculiar scientific problems involving the 

 circulation of the Indian Ocean that result from the monsoon seasons 

 and from its own size and shape that we would like to study. 



The northern part of the Indian Ocean is probably one of the best 

 places we could go to do work to try to find out how the atmosphere 

 affects the circulation of the ocean and in turn how the circulation 

 of the ocean affects the atmosphere simply because of the periodic 

 monsoon wind reversals across this area. 



There are several practical reasons, and it is interesting 

 scientifically. 



The Chairman. As to your observation about the lack of ships to 

 carry on the desired studies, who would operate the ships? 



Mr. Vetter. I think the ships should be operated by the scientific 

 institution that is performing the study. This is the way it is now 

 being done. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution runs and 

 operates its own ships as do the Scripps Institution of Oceanography 

 and other institutions. 



The Navy in pursuit of its own problems operates its own ships as 

 do the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey. 



I do not see the value of changing this method of operation. In 

 fact, I think it is important that the vessel and the crew on the vessel 

 has its first loyalty to the oceanographic institution that is conducting 

 the work, otherwise this could operate as a handicap toward the 

 flexibility of the system and toward the efficiency in removing control 

 of the vessel from the scientific director of the expedition. 



I would not visualize the need for changing the method of oper- 

 ating ships just because of the construction of more ships. 



The Chairman. Who would operate additional ships? Let us 

 pin it down. 



Ml". Vetter, How far can we pin it down ? 



The Chairman. Somebody has to have supervision over the opera- 

 tion of a ship. Would it be a replacement of the ship that has been 

 retired at Woods Hole, or what would it be ? 



