OCEANOGRAPHY |1'9 



public, people who want thiiiirs identified. They have to do a lot of 

 routine work, and quite often tliis has to be done by the best man in 

 the place. 



There have been some discussions of who is to do which work and 

 which committee should supervise the basic research programs, and 

 so on, I think most of us on the outside of these things feel a little 

 uncei-tain about prospects of any large monolithic agencies because 

 marine biology or biology in the sea ajid/or aquatic biology as well^ — 

 we should emphasize a lot of the work involved in fresli water is just 

 about the same as that in marine work, tlie techniques are the same, 

 philosophy is the same, and in the case of systematists they work all 

 the way through the salinity range. I have published papers on fresh 

 water and marine brines and the ocean myself. 



At any rate, we should be talking of aquatic biology. There are 

 so many diverse approaches involved in this tiiat we think the sup- 

 port of present agencies sucli as the Xational Science Foundation and 

 the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries is to be preferred to what some 

 people have heard, perhaps mistakenly, of a more overall oceano- 

 graphic direction of everything. 



For example, some of the problems that have direct concern with 

 these aspects of improving oceanic fisheries ^re going on in medical 

 research laboratories, involving the attempts to raise certain micro- 

 organisms on only a single type of food. 



Then there are other people who are doing studies on the physi- 

 ology of worms as related to salinity. This may yield as valuable in- 

 formation on tolerances of species in different latitudes and the like. 



A great deal of the material on marine biology at shore stations 

 find university laboratories has direct bearing on the ocean. For this 

 reason we hope that the various granting agencies or at least a 

 diversity of them are retained. 



xVnother problem, when too many grant applications come to one 

 particular desk or division, eveiybody, including the panel and 

 director, begin to get a little weary of the responsibility of deciding 

 who should get the money. It is pretty heavy. All the people I 

 know who are involved in this sort of work take it very seriously 

 and spend sleepless nights over whether Professor A really deserves 

 that much money, and so on. 



There is another point that occurred to me in this discussion of a 

 committee. That is, in addition to scientists or representatives of 

 the Government agencies and universities involved in this work, there 

 should be one or two members who have no special interest in it, at 

 least in ternis of gettmg money or cariying on a program. In other 

 words, I think it is advantageous to have disinterested members on 

 such broad connnittees, who can ask the questions from the layman's 

 standpoint, so to speak. 



I think this is the essence of my statement, sir. 



Mr. Miller. Doctor, I was not here when you took the stand. As 

 .a fellow Californian, I wanted to welcome you. 



Dr. Hedgpeth. I used to live in Walnut Creek. 



Mr. Miller. I used to represent Walnut Creek. Mr. Bauer? 



Mr. Bauer. Dr. Hedgpeth, some years ago the Congress passed a 

 law permitting any agency of Government which had the authority 

 to contract to also have the authority to grant. That was at the be- 

 hest of the National Science Foundation. 



