Marine Science Affairs 



Current Research Capabilities 



Our investments over the past seven years have resulted in the accelerated 

 development of marine scientific and technical manpower, ships, and facili- 

 ties. The quality of our research fleet and shore facilities is unsurpassed. Our 

 small but growing corps of highly trained specialists provides a strong cre- 

 ative base of talent (see Chapter XI) . 



The Federal Government has accepted responsibility to make sure that 

 academic research has grown in proportion to needs and opportunities, 

 public and private. Federal funding for oceanographic research is shown 

 in Figure X.l. 



In addition to the research contributions of the universities, there have 

 been many substantial contributions from Government laboratories and 

 from industry. There are more than 90 Federal, 40 State, 90 academic, and 

 25 private laboratories involved in some aspect of oceanographic research.^ 

 These are listed in Appendix F. However, most of the basic research is 

 carried out at 12 of our leading institutions.- Research has been conducted 

 both by multidisciplinary teams and by the oceanographer, physicist, chemist, 

 biologist, or geologist working alone. The Federal Government has drawn 

 on scientific results of completed research and on the scientists in planning 

 research programs. Close communication between the Federal Government 

 and the universities has been a particularly important factor in the success of 

 science. 



The Government's oceanographic research fleet currently includes 35 

 vessels with 32 additional survey vessels also collecting data related to basic 

 research efforts. Most of these ships are well equipped with modem instru- 

 mentation, and the capabilities of some of our newer ships such as the 

 Oceanographer and Silas Bent are unsurpassed. However, a few of these 

 vessels were built in the 1940s and are becoming more expensive to maintain 

 and operate and need to be replaced. 



Universities operate about 40 other research ships, most of which are 

 supported by Government funds; States and commercial organizations 

 operate and charter others. 



Recent technological advancements are rapidly providing many new tools 

 to complement the capabilities of our research fleet. Manned deep sub- 

 mersibles like the Alvin, shown in Figure XII. 2 in chapter XII, are justi- 

 fying the vision of their early advocates and are being used increasingly as 

 scientists fully explore their potential. U.S. -built submersibles made over 

 300 research dives in 1967 as compared to 140 in 1965 and 230 in 1966. 

 Towed unmanned vehicles are making it possible to examine the deep ocean 



^ With annual budgets of more than $50,000 devoted to ocean investigations. 



" Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 and following universities: Oregon State, Washington, Texas A&M, California 

 (Lajolla), Columbia, Rhode Island, Johns Hopkins, Hawaii, Miami (Florida), and 

 New York. 



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