118 OCEANOGRAPHY 



'ev6h inore of them in the future. At thg. present time, studies of the possible 

 effects of radioactive materials ou orsanisms in the vicinity of waste disposal 

 areas in the sea are inadequate because the supply of systematists is iuade<iuate. 

 There should he a place for a systematist in some group of organisms or another 

 at every marine laboratory and oceanographic institution in the countiy. 



Dr. Hedgpetii. I miolit say I am representino; the £!:eneral marine 

 bioloofical public. Nobody knows how man}' marine biolog'ists there 

 are. We tried to decide tliis. The American Institution of Biological 

 Sciences has a nonduplicative directory of something like 100,000 

 biologists. As a wild guess, I think at least 10 percent of these people 

 do something with marine organisms or work in or near the sea; so 

 there are quite a lot of marine biologists. All of them I know and to 

 whom I have spoken — of course, the National Academy report has 

 l)een pretty well publicized — are greatly interested and they are greatly 

 pleased as well that Congress has drawn up these bills and is taking 

 this matter so seriously. 



Of course, we feel this is, naturally, improving the status of marine 

 biology as well as oceanography. In fact, oceanography without 

 biology is somewhat of a contradiction in terms. 



I was very glad to hear Chairman Miller make the remark that 

 development of biology and physical oceanography should be on an 

 equal basis. 



I am director of a small marine station, and perhaps I am in some- 

 what closer contact with high school student groups and public groups 

 than some of the other people. I might say I am out among the 

 people. I talk to many of these groups. I have noticed the great 

 interest of young people in learning about marine biology and ex- 

 pressing interest in going on and studying this in college. 



Of course, as a i)rofessor of zoology I encourage some students to 

 go on and, natvirally, as every professor has to, I try to discourage 

 some others. There is certainly no scarcity of people who want to be 

 marine biologists of one kind or another. 



One of our problems has been with people who want to become 

 vSystematists or taxonomists. This problem has been mentioned. We 

 have felt that we ouglit to discourage most of the students who want 

 to become systematists, because tliere are so very few jobs for these 

 people. This program should oft'er opportunities for systematists to 

 carry on the necessary work that will accrue from this oceanograpliic 

 program. 



Being a systematist is a rather difficult art. It is a science as well. 

 I am one myself. I have worked with rather large collections. What 

 happens is essentially a {process of human computation. You do not 

 just memorize the shapes and forms of these animals and then slap 

 names on them. You have to visualize sometimes a great deal more 

 than that. We are going to need more of these peo])le because so 

 much work involving radioactive waste disposal is coming up. Here 

 it will be perceptions of changes in form and structure, perhaps. We 

 do not know. 



At any rate, I view^ this bill as providing some opportunities for 

 systematists, and I have already told one student that if these things 

 mateiMalize by the time he has gotten his Ph. I)., there may well be a 

 satisfactory job for liim. At the present time they are limited, and 

 museum budgets are pretty lean. 



I think another problem not too thoroughly recognized with our 

 museums is that they are public institutions and they have to help the 



