OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 9 



to study and develop but also the information that is developed in 

 other areas of the earth ? 



Mr. Vetter. Yes, I believe so. In fact, I thing we should encour- 

 age other countries to develop their programs so that we do not have 

 to tackle the whole problem by ourselves. 



The ocean is a pretty formidable obstacle and it is a wonderful 

 opportunity to develop international cooperation among nations in 

 studying the oceans. 



Mr. Pelly. Do we not have a very close community of interest with 

 our good neighbor, Canada, in this field ? 



Mr. Vetter. Yes, we do. 



Mr. Pelly. Are we exploiting that association as well as we might 

 be? 



Mr. Vetter. I believe so. To the best of my knowledge there is a 

 steady flow of scientific journals, periodicals, and reports to and from 

 our colleagues in Canada. 



Mr. Pelly. One of our great interests is, of course, that blind spot, 

 I guess, underneath the ice north of Canada, is it not ? 



Mr. Vetter. Well, I do not quite understand your question, sir. 



Mr. Pelly. In other words, we do not know much about the ocea- 

 nography under the ice in that part of the world in which we have a 

 tremendous interest. We work with Canada there, certainly; do 

 we not ? 



Mr. Vetter. Yes, there have been cooperative expeditions in the 

 Arctic Ocean on our side in which Canadian scientists ha^ "?. gone 

 aboard our icebreakers and we have gone on theirs. 



Mr. Pelly. I was wondering if, in the work of this committee, there 

 should be any relationship with the Canadians; whether we should 

 develop that community of interest more as a responsibility of this 

 committee. 



Mr. Vetter. I think it is a very good idea to cooperate with the 

 Canadians insofar as possible. 



Mr. Pelly. Would you comment on the gaps now, the blind spots 

 that are particularly serious as far as marine scientists view it today ? 



Mr. Vetter. Now we are not talking about United States- Canadian 

 relationships but are back to marine sciences ? 



Mr. Pelly. In what fields do you think greater emphasis should 

 be placed where we have less knowledge and there is more urgency 

 for us to explore? 



Mr. Vetter. All fields are interrelated. The most immediate prob- 

 lem, I believe, is to obtain an adequate description of the oceans — a 

 road map, if you will, of what is in the oceans in as great detail as 

 possible. We need to know a great deal more about the bottom topog- 

 raphy of the oceans, about the variations in the circulation from one 

 part of the oceans to the other and about the effects of these variations 

 on the marine biological environment. 



Mr. Pelly. The suggestions that the committee made regarding the 

 need for new vessels took into consideration that particular urgency 

 that you just mentioned ; did they not ? 



Mr. Vetter. Yes, sir. I believe that the starting point for the com- 

 mittee's estimate of what we ought to do in the next 10 years centers 

 around the need for an adequate description of the oceans. 



