60 OCEANOGRAPHY 



Since the members of our staff acquainted your committee with the 

 activities of our committee in February, I will not go into that, 

 but we strongly support an accelerated program of nationally sup- 

 ported oceanograpliic research. We should like to see an appropriate 

 proportion of the total eii'ort applied in the physical held, and more 

 particularly in the interaction of sea and land in the nearshore zone. 

 We would hope to participate in such a program when and if it is 

 undertaken, and to contribute to the extent of our technical resources 

 to its successful accomplishment. 



Once again, we are on very much of a fringe, however, in the major 

 problem. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Bauer? 



Mr. Bauer. General, I understand that the Navy's position on the 

 bill that Congressman Pelly put in, talking for DOD, is that, if 

 Mr. Felly's bill goes through, you would have an enlarged area of 

 operations up to the 50-fathom curve in the tidal situation, and so on. 



You are familiar with that position, are you? 



General Wilson. Yes, sir; we are. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Pelly? 



Mr. Pelly. I have no questions. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Lennon ? 



Mr. Lennon. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman may be on the fringe 

 area but I had the pleasure last fall of going with him and other mem- 

 bers of the Beach Erosion Board to visit some of our coastline in 

 North Carolina and a particular inlet, Masonboro Inlet, General, you 

 remember where there was a great deal of injury with respect to wave 

 action along the shore causing the erosion particularly in that area 

 of North Carolina that was hit by four hurricanes in the course of 

 the 1 month. I know that he is cognizant and has a great knowledge 

 of tliis problem. 



I am delighted tliat he is here. 



General Wilson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Curtin ? 



Mr. Curtin. I liave no questions . 



Mr. Miller. General, I feel that yours may be a fringe area but that 

 most of the work we are doing in tliis field is sort of fringe work at 

 the present time. 



To me, it is quite important in the solution of many of these prob- 

 lems. Many of the facets of this work you are doing are going to be 

 quite important. 



General Wilson. Mr. Chainnan, as we become more, shall I say, 

 civilized and mature in the country, we have taken lots of steps which 

 are serving to attack these beaches even more than lias been done in 

 the past. 



One of them mentioned here is digging these channels. Tlie sand 

 moves along the beaches and across the inlets constantly. We open up 

 and maintian a deep channel over the rough, outer bar by hopper 

 dredge and dump the dredged sand at sea. Though in most cases this 

 is the only effective method presently available to us, it removes the 

 sand fr-om the shore zone and, in effect, denies this sand to the beaclies. 



As you are aware, people in the United States are actually trucking 

 sands from inland to put on tlieir beaches because this is the first line 

 of defense against storms, hurricanes, and things of that kind. 



