110 OCEANOGRAPHY 



give the positions accurate to sonietliiiio; like lialf u mile at a cost of 

 something in the neighborhood of $10,000 or $:^0,000. The reason that 

 I mention this specifically is because such a device would be not only- 

 important for the surveys, but in my opinion would be of very great 

 value to our fishermen. Our tuna fishermen, for example m Califor- 

 nia, wish to locate a certain sea mount, because the tuna are attracted 

 to these sea mounts and are more abundant there, and they sometimes 

 spend a long time looking for it. If they had precise navigation they 

 could go there much more directly and save on the running time. 

 Similarly in tlie New England area on the Grand Banks there is a lot 

 of rocky ground, and some fiat ground, and the fisherman spends quite 

 a little time looking for his particular 500 acres of flat ground. This 

 precise navigational equipment will be of value, not only to the oceano- 

 grapliic surveyoi's, but also of great practical value to our fishermen. 



Mr. MiLLEit. Why are the tuna attracted to the areas around the sea 

 mounts ? 



I)i'. SdiAEFKR. I wish that I could give you a good clear answer to 

 that. Unfoi-funately I cannot. It appears that there is a cui'rent 

 going by the sea mounts which modify the circulation so that it 

 hring-s \\\) a greater amount of nutrients to the surface and supports 

 a larger stock of forage fish. However, the mechanism by which this 

 happens is i)retty complex. We have been making some studies, in my 

 own group, of this around one of the sea moinits and the mechanisms 

 here look awfully complicated. We cannot gi\e you a clear answer. 



Mr. Miller. This record will be i-ead by laymen. I thouglit that 

 this woidd l)e a good place to get that in the record. 



Dr. ScrrAp:FER. With regard to the means of getting interagency 

 coordination on these surveys tliere are several bills before the Con- 

 gress. There is H.R. 9361 and the companion Senate bill, S. 2692, 

 that propose that a Division of Marine Sciences be established in 

 the National Science Foundation. Tliere are a series of other bills, 

 H.R. 10412, and two others of similar nature, to create a coordinating 

 committee on oceanographic surveys with membership from the sev- 

 eral Fedenil agencies dealing with oceanographic problems, reporting 

 both to the President and to the Congress. With respect to those 

 particular bills w^e note that there is no explicit provision for non- 

 Government representatives on the coordinating committee. Since a 

 lot of the oceanographic research of the Ignited States and a good 

 deal of the sui-\^ey work is being done and will doubtless continue to 

 be done by universities and other nongovermental institutions, I per- 

 sonally feel some representation of these nongovernmental people 

 might well be provided for. 



Mr. IVIiLLER. If the bill were amended to provide for representa- 

 tion by these nongovermental agencies, with ])erha{)s one or moi'e 

 representatives from the State agencies, do you think that would have 

 some merit ? 



Dr. SciiAEFER. Yes; I think that it woidd have some merit. Actu- 

 ally, in regard to how tiiis coordinating group is set up, I do not feel 

 very strongly and I do not believe that my colleagues on the ocean- 

 ographic connnittee feel very strongly. There are these various 

 piexi-es of legislation that would ])rovide this. At the same time, the 

 interagency committee on oceanography of the Federal Council is 

 planning to establish an ocean survey advisory panel consisting of 



