42 



OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Table 3. — Summary of 'budget and perscmnel data from 5 groups of laboratories 



[All monetary figures are listed as thousands of dollars per year] 



A large share of the total number of oceanographers are working at the few- 

 large oceanographic institutions. If we consider how many of the largest labora- 

 tories one must count in order to account for over half of the personnel in each 



of several groups, we have : „ ,. . 



Number of 

 Groups laboratories 



Ph. D.'s 4 



Master's degrees 9 



Junior scientists and technicians 5 



Support staff (secretarial, assistants, ship crews, etc.) 2 



Total all personnel 2 



Each of the four larger institutions have extensive open ocean programs re- 

 quiring ships and a strong support staff as well as a large number of Ph. D.'s. 

 The smaller laboratories are relatively weak in numbers of support staff 

 members. 



IV. DISCUSSION 



Financial problems 



Among the university-sponsored organizations, only the large ones have been 

 able to maintain an extensive blue-water operation and large departments in 

 specialized categories such as physical oceanography and geochemistry. In 

 order to support their large ships and technical staffs, most of these laboratories 

 have found it necessary from time to time to conduct relatively large applied 

 research programs for the Government. In some cases such work has necessi- 

 tated sacrificing more basic research projects In others, the stimulation pro- 

 vided by applied problems has been helpful. However, laboratories should not 

 have to undertake large applied projects primarily as a means of solving finan- 

 cial problems. 



The small university laboratories represent two somewhat different categories. 

 Some are summer seaside laboratories with major emphasis on teaching and 

 marine biological investigations. Others are year around oceanographic opera- 

 tions in estuarine and coastal waters. There are some intergradations. On the 

 average, only 38 percent of the support of the smaller university laboratories is 

 obtained through Federal funds. They depend mainly on general university 

 funds, derived either from private or State sources. They are less dependent 

 on specific research grants than the larger organizations and hence have main- 

 tained a larger measure of financial stability. However, this has been accom- 

 plished only by severe limitation of the scope of their activities. 



Each laboratory has its own particular problems, but some general patterns 

 are discernible. The large laboratories with heavy Federal support need finan- 

 cial stability and predictability to rescue them from their present hand-to-mouth 

 existence on short-term contracts. The insecurity of this existence is a constant 

 worry to administration and staff alike; it interferes with long-range planning; 

 and it sometimes results in taking on routine survey tasks that are not the proper 

 work of a research organization and contribute little to the laboratory except as 

 a financial stopgap. They desperately need ship replacements and additional 



