"Knowledge and understanding of the oceans promise to assume greater 

 and greater importance in the future. This is not a one-year program — 

 or even a ten-year program. It is the first step in a continuing effort to 

 acquire and apply the information about a part of our world that will 

 ultimately determine conditions of life in the rest of the world." 



JOHN F. KENNEDY 



Chapter XVI 

 LOOKING AHEAD 



Man's uses of the oceans date back to primitive extraction of salt and fish 

 and exploration by raft and sailing canoe. Now we are in the midst of sig- 

 nificantly new advances in mastery of the sea. The future holds even greater 

 promise because of expanding scientific discoveries about the natural world 

 around us, and because of innovations afforded by 20th century marine 

 technology. To take advantage of these opportunities, we must clearly 

 identify benefits, enunciate objectives, and effectively mobilize requisite 

 technical resources. But while ideas and plans are necessary, they are not 

 sufficient. Also required are venture capital, both public and private, and 

 involvement of our many concerned socio-economic-political institutions. 



Earlier chapters of this Report cast Federal efforts in oceanic exploration 

 and research in broad terms to show how policy and institutional factors 

 promote uses of the sea to serve major goals of the Nation, and of society 

 itself. 



The time frame in which these programs and budgets were discussed 

 however, has primarily been the present and the near-term future of FY 

 1970. 



To complete the perspective, this brief concluding chapter sets forth the 

 unfinished business which warrants attention on the Nation's agenda, in the 

 longer term. These views emerge from issues that became more clearly 

 illuminated during the past year, and from a realistic appraisal of an in- 

 creasing range of options offered by the marine environment to meet public 

 purposes. They are presented not only in terms of what is scientifically or 



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