220 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Mr. Casey. I have just one question. Is your work limited to that 

 in the nature of hull designs and the nature of thin<rs other than the 

 ocean minerals and things of that nature ? 



Captain Wright. We deal lai-gely with ships, aircraft, and the sea 

 as an entity. Therefore it is necessary for us to have the environ- 

 mental aspects such as sea configration, pi-essure, salinity, and all the 

 factors including chemical, physical and biological. In that it is in- 

 evitable that we are engaged in tliose supporting fields, and the Chief 

 of the Bureau of Ships now provides that approximately one third 

 of their overall research etfort is reaching down into those supporting 

 fundamental fields. As such, sir, it is an integral part- of our mission. 



Admiral Mumma. Mr. Chairman, may I elaborate on that point 

 just a little? 



Mr. Miller. Yes, sir. 



Admiral Mumma. I believe it would be wise to say that we do not 

 anticipate usurping the prerogatives in other areas in this field par- 

 ticularly of minerals and the ocean depths, and so on. 



Anything that we happen to run across in connection with our re- 

 search is, of course, immediately available to any other activity of the 

 Government or otherwise for exploitation. The classified aspects of 

 our own designs, of course, are the only things that we really hang 

 onto. 



The fundamental knowledge broad base on which we build is gen- 

 erally available to the whole country on a free basis. 



Mr. Miller. Following Mr. Casey's statement, you, too, have an 

 interest in some of the biology of the sea as it directly affects sounding 

 with submarines ? 



Admiral MuiNiisrA. We certainly do, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. Unfortunately, you cannot divorce yourself from the 

 whole field because, in trying to determine causes for that, it naturally 

 means the whole gamut is open to you and you have to go into it. 

 Is that correct ? 



You may call upon the Fish and Wildlife Service for technical 

 service or advice where you have an ichthyologist or marine biologist 

 in it, but nevertheless the door of science beneath the sea is opened 

 by everything you are doing. Is that correct? 



Admiral Mumma. I would like to answer that by further adding 

 to your previous question to Cai)tain Wright, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. I was going to ask that same question of you. Admiral, 

 because we want it in this record before you get out of the Navy. 



Admiral Mumma. I would like to say, sir, that I feel that this area 

 involves so many agencies and it is so broad in its scope that it is just 

 like stratospheric research. We know far less about the bottom of 

 the ocean than we do about any other part of the world and, this being 

 so, and everyone in the world being interested in it to an increasingly 

 gr-eater degree, I think guidance by the Congress will be extremely 

 beneficial ajid it has a tendency to focus the attention of, say, some 

 folks who miglit not be nnmediately alert to these ])roblems. 



We have always found that the Congress is surprisingly alert in 

 these areas and ready to pick up the new ideas and go ahead into new 

 fields as evidenced by the long histoi-y of the support of the Congress 

 in these i-esearches going back to the earliest days and carrying right 

 through with the growth from one to the other aspect that we are now 

 experiencing. 



