OCEANOGRAPHY 13 



Several sea mounts several limidred fathoms deep in the Central 

 Eastern Pacific have been discovered in the last few years and tuna 

 fishermen have gone to them and have actually caught a good deal 

 of fish. 



On one bank in particular within a few months a million dollars 

 worth of tuna were caught from this newly discovered bank. This is 

 simply an illustration of one of the potentials of surveying the area 

 beyond the continental shelves of the United States and the other 

 coastlines of the world. 



The principal needs at the present moment for such deep sea sur- 

 veying are certainly military. They are related to the navigation 

 of submarines, to the ability of submarines to locate themselves by 

 using land marks on the sea floor, and the use of various kinds of 

 underwater devices in which the bottom topography is a serious mat- 

 ter. But basically, one can say this: that maps of the ocean floor, 

 like maps of the land, are useful for military purposes. Just as an 

 army on land needs to know the toj^ography very well indeed, so 

 the modern navy with its increasing dependence on submarines needs 

 to know the topography of the sea floor very well indeed. 



The making of maps has therefore always been an important mili- 

 tary requirement. 



Moreover, the Navy, because of its worldwide interest, has had a 

 long tradition of sending out expeditions to faraway places and, as 

 a case in point, one may cite the maps of most of the South Pacific 

 islands which were made by either the British Admiralty or by the 

 American Navy in the first decades of the 19th century, something 

 over a hundred years ago. 



If you want to go to the Taumotu Islands, for example, or even 

 to many of the Society Islands, you buy from the Hydrographic 

 Office a chart which was made by the IT.S. Ex]:)loring Expedition in 

 1837. It is labeled "U.S. Ex. Ex." Particularly during the 19th 

 century, the Navy was very much concerned with worldwide surveys 

 and surveys remote from the shorelines of the world but with the 

 increase of the Navy's responsibilities, it has become plainly evident 

 that this charting work has attained a fairly low priority. Simply 

 because the Navy has so many more things to do than it could possibly 

 do. the charting has tended to take a low priority. 



The Coast Survey, on the contrary, has as its primary mission and 

 indeed its sole mission to find out about the earth, about the magnetic 

 field of the earth, about the gravitational field of the earth which 

 aft'ects geodesy, the topography of the surface, and the shape of the 

 whole earth. 



Its appropriations for this purpose come directly from Congress 

 and the magnitude of the U.S. surveying effort insofar as it is done by 

 the Coast Survey can be judged directly by Congress and evaluated 

 and approved or disapproved. 



It therefore seems to me and to the Committee on Oceanography 

 that no harm would be done and a great deal of good would be done 

 if the abilities of the Coast Survey were enlarged to enable it to con- 

 duct its excellent surveys in waters which extend beyond the imme- 

 diate territories of the United States. 



53205—60- 



