OCEANOGRAPHY EST THE UNITED STATES 65 



Admiral Richmond. Well, I would hesitate to give a direct answer 

 because anything I would say now would be purely curbstone. It 

 does seem to me, after reviewing the report which has been put out 

 by the National Academy of Sciences group and looking at the work 

 that I think is before this subcommittee, that at some point there is 

 going to have to be a coordinating agency. I would not like to say 

 ]ust what that coordinating agency would be but feel that these ob- 

 jectives cannot be accomplished without some coordinating agency or 

 group having the responsibility for carrying the objectives forward. 



I would not want at this point to venture an opinion as to who or 

 what or how that would be done, but I think that your committee, sir, 

 if I may suggest, is going to have to consider that very, very carefully 

 to this extent : that I feel that the big gap, as I see it now, is in assur- 

 ing that this program, assuming that it was accepted as any program, 

 whether it is the program as set forth in the committee or modified up 

 or down moves forward as a coordinated effort and not by fits and 

 starts as any particular agency that is able to obtain funds or to 

 implement a part of a program. 



I think at the very inception of the thing that it must be a very 

 coordinated effort and, from experience in Government of a number 

 of years in obtaining budgets and implementing a thing like this, it 

 cannot be done, I believe, by individual agencies operating on their 

 own. 



Mr. Miller. Do you feel as one who knows the sea and loves the 

 sea that we have been perhaps negligent in not doing enough in this 

 field in the past ? 



Admiral Eichmond. Of course "negligent" is a harsh word, sir. 

 Let me put it this way, sir. I think we know very little about the 

 sea. I think what we know about the sea is most superficial. It has 

 been brought to the fore very forcibly in the last few years largely 

 by the Navy in their underwater sound experiments and that sort of 

 thing. 



Thirty or forty years ago, the only interest in water was that it was 

 a means of transportation. We knew that there were great depths but 

 had very little knowledge of what the waters contained. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Pelly. 



Mr. Pellt. I have no questions. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Lennon. 



Mr. Lennon. Mr. Chairman. 



Admiral Richmond, I came in a little late after you had already 

 gotten into your statement. 



Did I understand you to say that the Coast Guard did not know of 

 the study being made by this committee until the report was made ? 



Admiral Richmond. Well, we, of course, did not contribute. 

 Frankly, if it was called to my attention when it started it certainly 

 escaped my memory. We had no relation to it. I will put it that 

 way. 



Mr. Lennon. You, of course, have read the report and particularly 

 the general recommendations and the specific recommendations of the 

 report. Are you inclined on the basis of those general and specific 

 recommendations to agree in substance that we ought to project into 

 the future a serious study of this problem, if we can call it a problem ? 



Admiral Richmond. I do not think there is any question about it 



