40 



OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



It is desirable that fellowships permit students to attend more than one 

 university. This can provide students with well-rounded educations in all 

 branches of oceanography without each university having to provide a full 

 curriculum. Such a program should be handled through the National Science 

 Foundation. 



6. Efforts should be made in research and survey programs to use larger 

 numbers of assistants at the bachelor and master's level in order to utilize 

 more efficiently the limited number of persons available at the doctoral level. 



7. Oceanographers should undertake more active recruiting of prospective 

 oceanographers among undergraduate students of physics, chemistry, biology, 

 and geology. 



Chapter 12. Marine Sciences in the United States, 1958 

 I. introduction 



The main purposes of this report are to examine the present status and past 

 history of the growth of basic and applied research in the marine sciences in the 

 United States and to analyze some of the current problems of supporting oceano- 

 graphic research. 



Oceanography is a very young area of activity in the United States. It has 

 developed from a handful of laboratories in 1920 to its present status of about 

 70 laboratories of variovis sizes. Part of the story of this growth is shown in 

 table 1. The total number of laboratories doubled in the postwar years and 

 has increased nearly tenfold since 1920. The total financial support and per- 

 sonnel has also increased, for most of the existing institutions have increased 

 their staffs and new laboratories have been established. 



Table 1. — Number of marine laboratories in the United States and territorial 

 possessions, listed according to sponsoring agency and period when founded 



• Mainly corporations funded by private contributions or by endowments provided by foundations. 



The problems of acquiring a first rate staff in a competitive market, of financ- 

 ing their research, and of getting and maintaining additional ship and shore fa- 

 cilities have been severe. They have led in some cases to difficult and precarious 

 financing of oceanographic laboratories. 



Some of the data used in this discussion came from the "Directory of Hydro- 

 biological Laboratories and Personnel in North America" edited by Robert W. 

 Hiatt and published in 1954 under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on Hy- 

 drobiology to the Office of Naval Research. For present purposes the Commit- 

 tee on Oceanography found it necessary to bring this information up to date. Ac- 

 cordingly, in the spring of 1958 a questionnaire was sent to existing marine 

 laboratories in the United States asking for detailed information concerning 

 their programs, financial support, staffs, facilities, and future capabilities. This 

 report summarizes the responses received from 60 laboratories. 



Each laboratory was asked to describe its present program and to estimate 

 the percentage of the total laboratory program that was devoted to oceanog- 

 raphy. Oceanography was defined as being "* * * primarily concerned with 

 describing and understanding the oceans: its surfaces, estuaries, shoreline, and 

 deeps." The intended application of this knowledge to a particular practical 

 problem, such as underwater acoustics or fisheries population studies need not, 

 it was emphasized, rule out this definition of oceanography. The responses to 

 this first question are not summarized here. However, the descriptive answers 

 to this question were used to verify or modify the estimated percentage of each 

 laboratory's program which the directors estimated to be devoted to marine 

 sciences. 



