86 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Mr. McKernan. That is right. 



Mr. IVIiLLER. How many of your ships were specifically built for 

 fisheries research purpose? 



Mr. McKernan. Of our major fleet of research boats, I can think of 

 only two, the Charles E. Gilhert and the John N. Cohh. 



Mr. Miller. How many boats do you presently operate ? 



Mr. McKernan. About nine offshore vessels, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. Weighing the efficiency of the Albatross against the 

 other converted boats, is she in the lower or upper category ? 



Mr. McKernan. She is in the lowest category that we have ; that is, 

 she is the most inefficient research boat we are operating, to my knowl- 

 edge. 



Let me give you an example of this so that the committee will have 

 facts. The Albatross has been operating in the last 3 or 4 years about 

 150 days per year. 



The Delatoare^ her sister ship up there, a smaller boat, not a twin 

 but a boat that operates in New England, has been operating at about 

 180 days per year except in 1958 when we ran short of funds. She has 

 been operating at from 180 to 185 days a year. 



I consider this a minimum operation for a research boat. I con- 

 sider operations between 200 and 220 days a year are appropriate for 

 a research vessel doing marine biological research in oceanography. 



Mr. Miller. I have before me a copy of a letter signed by you. It 

 is a letter you wrote to Senator Saltonstall. You were nice enough to 

 send me this copy. I notice that in one paragraph you say : 



If not deactivated the operation of the Albatross III would have had to be 

 curtailed this spring because its funds for the fiscal year would have been ex- 

 hausted by then. Attempting to operate on such a part-time basis is unwise, 

 financially, in our present situation. 



Now, that indicates that your money may have rim out and that is 

 the reason you are deactivating the vessel. 



I would like you to explain that paragraph to me. 



Mr. McKernan. Well, Mr. Chairman, there are two factors in- 

 volved. With a vessel of the age of the Albatross it is simply in- 

 herent that the costs increase and the costs of the Albatross have in- 

 creased. We had anticipated that next year further reductions in 

 our research in New England would have had to occur in order to 

 operate her full time. In fact, the operating expenses of the boat 

 have increased beyond what we expected this year alone so that we 

 were short of funds for that particular purpose. 



We anticipated a further increase next year in the operating ex- 

 penses and, since right at the moment anyway our budget is the same 

 as it was last year and we anticipate in the President's budget about 

 the same budget next year, it simply meant further reductions in our 

 scientific work in New England. We felt we could ill afford to do 

 that, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. Then the budgetary picture plays a veiy important 

 part in this scheme ? 



Mr. McKernan. Well, it plays a part. 



Mr. Miller. Are you getting any more money or anticipating 

 getting any more money in fiscal 1900 than you have in fiscal 1959 

 for research work? I assume tliat your reseai-ch work, as far as Con- 

 gress is concerned, is a line item and you justify to your own people 



