OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 335 



Wallen, I. E. 1959. "The Atomic Energy Program in Oceanography and Marine 

 Biology." Appendix "C" to a statement prepared for the Special Subcommittee 

 on Radiation, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Congress of the United 

 States for public hearings on fallout from nuclear weapons tests. May 5-8, 

 1959. 



Mr. Miller. Doctor, that is very fine. Our imclerstanding is that we 

 need more competent people in tlie field of oceanography, that there is 

 a dearth in that field, and that that is one of the problems confront- 

 ing us today. Do j^ou agree with that ? 



Dr. Seymour. I certainly do. Since I am from the University of 

 Wasliington, I would like to point out what we feel is probably one of 

 the limiting factors in the development of the program of oceanogra- 

 phy proposed by the National Academy of Sciences and that is the 

 training of students in oceanography. The Universitj^ of Washington 

 is the only university that offers course work for undergraduates as 

 well as graduates in oceanography. 



Mr. Miller. If you have time, Doctor, would you care to go into 

 this portion of the report that you modestly deleted because it per- 

 tained to the university ? 



Dr. Seymour. The part about the fish ? 



Mr. Miller. Yes. That is one of the things we are very particu- 

 larly interested in ; the fish. 



Mr. Pelly. Mr. Chairman, I am glad you suggested that because I 

 started to read ahead and I thought that was one of the most interest- 

 ing parts of his testimony. 



Mr. Miller. One of the things we are interested in is fish. Before 

 you go on, I presume you know my friend. Dr. Dick Van Cleve at the 

 imiversity. 



Dr. Seymour. Yes, very well. I worked with Dr. Van Cleve and 

 took some of my graduate work under him. 



Mr. Miller. I had the privilege of working with him for 4 years 

 on the California Division of Fish and Game. I was the layman in 

 charge of the work and I never enjoyed anything more in my life. 

 He is a warm personal friend of mine. 



Dr. Seymour. This work is done under the direction of Dr. Don- 

 aldson, under the sponsorship of the College of Fisheries and the 

 State department of game and the State department of fisheries. 

 This is an experiment in selective breeding in which Dr. Donaldson 

 has used both rainbow trout and Chinook salmon. By selecting for 

 certain characteristics over several generations has developed a run of 

 salmon and trout that is unique in that more of them seem to survive 

 than do under normal conditions and the growth rate is faster. . 



The important thing to note is that the return of the fish in 1958 was 

 3.2 percent of those released. With paper and pencil you can figure 

 if you get this sort of return on a release of salmon, you can build 

 up a run of salmon tremendously. One pair of salmon will pro- 

 duce 4,000 young. To maintain the population you only need to get 

 back 2 fish from that 4,000. If you get back 3.2 percent, which is 

 something over a hmidred, you have increased the run tremendously. 

 Wliat we believe has happened here is that the characteristics Dr. 

 Donaldson has selected for are those that are suitable for this more 

 or less changed environment. Normally the Chinook salmon are 

 found in the large streams, the large rivers, and do not usually come 

 into small streams or up through the Lake Washington ship canal 

 into this small tributary to Lake Washington. 



