8 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Mr. DiNGELX,. How about the relation of ocean currents to this? 



Mr. Vetter. The fish go where the nutrients go and the nutrients 

 are moved from place to place in the ocean by currents. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Do you know anything about these currents? 



Mr. Vetter. We know quite a bit. We are just beginning to find 

 out how much we do not know about the currents. 



We have a ver}'^ good idea of the general circulation of the ocean, 

 sort of the study of climate. What we do not know very much about 

 are the variations of this climate and the details of the circulation 

 and, of course, it is the details that affect the disposition of nutrients 

 and the growth of populations of fish. 



Mr. DiNGELL. How about exploitation of minerals in the ocean 

 proper and on its bottom ? Is that going to come out of this ? 



Mr. Vetter. This, I believe, is primarily a question of economics. 

 We know that there are tremendous deposits of manganese nodules 

 in both the Atlantic and Pacific which contain a fairly high content 

 of cobalt and nickel and copper and manganese. 



If we need to get this material and if we decide to build the equip- 

 ment to do it, I think we certainly can. 



There are some problems as to whether this is more expensive to 

 do at sea than on land and in addition there are problems of the owner- 

 ship of these materials. 



Mr. DiNGELL. How about the effect on the weather by controlled 

 currents or by diking the Bering Strait ? Is this a consideration that 

 will conv^ out of the study ? 



Mr. A TTER, We are not thinking of building a dike across the 

 Bering b trait. 



Mr. DiNGELL. I have seen studies about the possibilities of making 

 dikes here and there that would affect the weather by increasing rain- 

 fall and so forth. This is something that we could study, is it not? 



Mr. Veti^er. These are things than can be studied. 



I believe, however, that the first payoff is not in control of ocean 

 currents by building dikes or anything else to divert them but in being 

 able to understand what they are doing and perhaps predict what will 

 happen so that we can then in turn see how this affects the climate 

 and the weather. 



Our ability now to forecast climate is nil. We have no idea what 

 the climate is going to be like on earth 50 or 100 years from now 

 or 10 years from now. 



In the system of heat energy coming into the earth from the sim 

 and affecting the atmosphere and the oceans, the ocean is the great 

 flywheel that really affects the climate and it is only by understand- 

 ing the oceans that we can ever hope to be able to predict climate as 

 opposed to being able to predict weather a few weeks in advance. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Thank you veiy much, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Pelly. 



Mr. Pelly. Thank you, Mr. ChaiiTnan. 



Doctor, there is eveiy reason to believe, is there not, tliat there 

 can be a free flow of information between all nations on scientific 

 information regardless of the troubled conditions in the world? 



Mr. VirrTER. I certainly hope so. In the case of the oceanographic 

 , part of the IG Y, this has certainly proven to be the case. 



Mr. Pelly. In other words, if we can induce more scientists to go 

 into this field we would have not only our own information available 



