As noted elsewhere in this report, the President's five-point marine sciences 

 program places emphasis on environmental forecasting and ocean monitor- 

 ing programs as areas of special interest to the United States in the Inter- 

 national Decade of Ocean Exploration. 



A cage of instruments for measuring salinity, temperature, depth and other oceano- 

 graphic factors is lowered from the Navy's survey ship Silas Bent. Data from the 

 instruments are fed into the Shipboard Survey System, where they are recorded, 

 corrected, and displayed in a matter of minutes. 



The Navy and ESSA are developing oceanographic prediction programs 

 with the following recent achievements: 



The first ESSA Marine Forecast Center was established at Anchorage, 

 Alaska. It provides seafarers along the Alaskan coast with six broadcast 

 bulletins daily, each containing weather patterns, forecasts of waves, tem- 

 perature, visibility and sea ice, and warnings. 



Observations of Gulf Stream meandering were tested by ESSA against 

 several theories about the origin of these phenomena; it appears, however, 

 that none of these theories is adequate, and that further basic work is needed. 



During studies of the general circulation of the Gulf of Mexico, ESSA 

 took advantage of a rare opportunity to investigate oceanographic condi- 

 tions immediately before and after a hurricane passage. These observations 

 will contribute substantially to our knowledge of both the causes and effects 

 of such storms. 



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