OCEANOGRAPHY 163 



It is from investigcitions so conducted that great contributions have 

 been made to our knowledge of biological activities in the sea. This 

 has led to the rise of marine laboratories, and these laboratories have 

 served an important function in advancing our knowledge of bio- 

 logical activities in the sea. 



Many marine laboratories exist today and in terms of looking to- 

 ward the expansion and improvement of biological work related to 

 oceanography, and we must expect these marine laboratories to con- 

 tinue and expand their activities. This, of course, requires greater 

 financial support than has been previously available to them. 



There are many problems in comiection with particularly the food 

 resources of the sea and the biological activities in the open ocean 

 not possibly to study unless the biologists are able to get out to the 

 sea to work in those areas. This requires essentially a floating 

 laboratory, a biological research ship, because the needs of biological 

 Avork in the open ocean require often that a sliip or a floating labora- 

 tory shall stay in one place for a very long period of time in order 

 that all of the essential areas of environment can be intensively 

 studied. 



Biological work at sea is less meaningful unless it is accompanied 

 by physical data taken at the same time. Of course, it is important 

 to have access to records of temperatures and salinity and oxygen 

 concentrations taken in the past and over long periods of time. But 

 very often to solve a particular biological problem one must know 

 these physical and chemical factors taken at the same time as the 

 biological iuA'estigations are going on. 



I agree very firmly with what Dr. Hedgpeth said last Friday and 

 with some of the testimony this morning that one of the needs in 

 the held of biological work in the oceans as well as others is the prob- 

 lem of manpower. But I also agree that there is no dearth of in- 

 terested young people at the present time, that support for young 

 people coming into this field is at a high level, and that those of us in 

 universities are, if anything, fl(X>ded with students. 



One of the pressing problems, however, is: What is the student 

 going to do when he finishes witli his technical training and has com- 

 pleted his professional training and comes to the point where he is 

 ready to take a career position ? So far as biological work is con- 

 cerned, one of the areas I shall use as an example, where the most 

 crying need for workers exists, provides the fewest positions, that is 

 the field of taxonomy. In this particular field, which underlies and 

 underscores work in all other biological disciplines and specialties, 

 there are veiy, very few professional positions open to persons when 

 they get their training in this field. 



The plight of our museums, both national, public, and private, is 

 almost a national disgrace. The amount of work that is needed, if we 

 are going to solve problems such as how are we going to utilize re- 

 sources from the sea, how are we going to determine what is safe to 

 put into the sea, in terms of waste materials, depends in the last 

 analysis on the basis of knowing for sure the kinds of animals, kinds 

 of plants that are there and how these things are going to affect them. 



To do this, we have to have people who are capable of determining 

 the species. These are taxonomists, and for these people there is 

 little career employment at the present time. There is no way to have 

 a shortcut to the species identification. There is no more important 



