366 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



STATEMENT OF DONALD L. McKERNAN, DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU 

 OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES; AND J. LAURENCE McHUGH, CHIEF, 

 DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH, BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL 

 FISHERIES, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 



Mr. McKernan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a special priv- 

 ilege to appear before you this morning and talk to you about my own 

 specialty, biological oceanography. 



Gentlemen, I wish to share my pleasant experience today with my 

 colleague, Dr. J. Laurence McHugh, who only recently became the 

 Chief of our Division of Biological Research. Dr. McHugh has had 

 broad experience in marine research on both coastlines of our country, 

 studying and obtaining his doctor's degree under a very famous 

 oceanographer, Dr. Sverdrup, at one of the country's outstanding 

 oceanographic institutions, the Scripps Institute of Oceanograi)hy in 

 southern California. 



Mr. Miller. Without taking away anything from Mr. Pelly, I am 

 very happy, being from California, to welcome him. 



Mr. McKernan. Dr. McHugh for the past 8 years has been in 

 charge of marine fisheries research in Virginia and has contributed 

 greatly to our knowledge of oceanography and fisheries on the Atlantic 

 coast. 



This morning we wish to talk to you about the ocean as a source 

 of food. We think the best way to do this is to show you some of 

 the things we are learning at the present time through our current 

 research programs. As you will see, we are hardly splashing the sur- 

 face of the ocean. We need much more knowledge before we can 

 apply it to harvesting fully the rich food resources of the sea. 



The sea is in some respects similar to the atmosphere surrounding 

 the earth in that it has both length and width and depth. Plants 

 and animals grow within these three dimensions most abundantly to 

 a depth where light freely penetrates, or to about 300 feet. Unlike our 

 land masses, the sea is not a solid; and unlike air, it is not a gas. It 

 is a liquid, and oceanographers have found that the movements of 

 these vast bodies of liquid, the oceans, more closely correspond to the 

 movements of the air above than with the time lag in the movements 

 of the waters. 



I hope other oceanographers have told you of the effect of the 

 ocean currents on the temperatures of the coastal regions of tlie ^vorld. 

 In addition to the effexit of ocean currents on our coastal weather, 

 there is, in fact, weather within the oceans themselves. And just as 

 our climatic conditions determine the plants and animals which in- 

 habit and prosper in any of the climatic zones from the tro]-)ics to the 

 Arctic, so there are various ocean weather zones. Different plants and 

 animals are found in these zones, and many migrate hundreds of miles 

 through the eight ocean weather zones during a seasonal cyclic migra- 

 tion, just as birds and some animals move from one locality to another 

 with the seasons. 



The sea has its rich pasturages, just as has our fertile valleys on 

 the land. In some instances these fertile pastures in the sea are caused 

 by the wind blowing offsore from the land, bringing enriched water 

 from the ocean bottom to the surface sunlit layers. This enriched 

 water in the presence of sunlight forms the basis for the chain of life 



