OCEANOGRAPHY 207 



In another connection above I have mentioned the vast increase in tlie Russian 

 high seas fisheries and their even greater plans for increasing those yiekls in 

 the immediate future. Their ocean research is expanding Iiand-in-hand with 

 their ocean food production in a way that is being matched by no other country 

 in the world, including the United States. Their big <x-ean research vessels 

 roam the world. They are doing more ocean research in the Indian Ocean than 

 we are ; they know more about the Canadian Continental Shelf in the Arctic than 

 the Canadians do. Tiieir fleets of vessels are accompanied by research ves.sels ; 

 their big independent trawlers, much larger than any U.S. fishing vessel, carry 

 scientists along not only to do research but to advise in the fishing op<?ration. 



It would seem that sooner or later we should learn that the Russians in their 

 scientific activities do not make many false moves, and that we could do worse 

 than keep abreast of them. Khrushchev boasts about bringing his pork and beef 

 production up to match that of the United States in a few years but he has spent 

 millions upon millions in the last few years on ocean research and expansion of 

 his high seas fisheries. In consequence he has already caught up with the United 

 States as the second largest fishing nation of the world, and as our fisheries con- 

 tinue to decline his continue to advance steadily ahead at a rapid rate. 



XEED FOR GEXEKAI, LEGISLATION 



Most if not all of the Government witnesses that have come before you have 

 said that there is no need for general legislation dealing with oceanography 

 because their present enabling legislation is broad enough to enable them to do 

 the things that the general legislation would authorize. 



This is both true and untrue, but is a directed statement authorized to all hands 

 by the Bureau of the Budget. It is true that the agencies have most of the 

 authority to do the research authorized by the general oceanography legislation 

 before your committee, but they do not have the money with which to initiate or 

 <-arry forward the expanded ocean research programs called for by it. Further- 

 more they are unlikely to get those funds unless some such general legislation is 

 enacted which clearly shows the present interest of the present Congress. 



The great benefit of the National Academy of Sciences-National Re.'^earch 

 Council Committee on Oceanography grew out of the fact that its reports did 

 not have to be cleared by the Bureau of the Budget. Accordingly a competent 

 group of scientists well versed in the ocean needs of the United St.ates and its 

 worldwide responsibilities were able to put together a rational program of 

 research which wfiuld attend to those responsibilities. Moreover, they were able 

 to include cost estimates for each phase of the expanded research program and 

 for the total. 



In the executive agencies this is legally possible also, but in practice the 

 Bureau of the Budget does not permit such a thing to hapwn. I know of quite 

 good ocean research planning which has been done in the Government agencies, 

 some of whom you have cliided for their dereliction in not doing adeq\iate for- 

 ward planning. Before these plans emerge into the public eye the corners have 

 been so rounded o& by the Budget officers that the plans are generalized i)lati- 

 tudes and the cost estimates have been eliminated. In consequence the Congress 

 rails at the bureauci-ats for not doing their work properly, the bureaucrats go 

 back whippefl to have another go at the budget oflScers, and the ocean research 

 does not get started or done. 



The plans of the NASCO Conunittee, and their cost estimates, were so com- 

 petently done that they have already had a considerable effect ui)on the budget 

 officers. So many people in the Congress, in the interested ele<-torate, and in 

 the executive agencies themselves have been impressed by the ability and general 

 cohesion of this .set of plans that the budget officers have loosened the purse 

 strings this year without general legislation being passed. Each of the affected 

 agencies except the Bureau of Commercial Fislieries has l>een given a substantia] 

 increase for their ocean research l>udgets for fiscal in(>l. 



This is another noi-mal stratagem of budget officers. Rather than have au- 

 thorization legislation i>assed that carries cost estimates that will be binding upvon 

 them as the will of Congress, they will loosen the purse strings enough to let 

 the pressure behind the legislation escape. Once the pressure goes down they 

 again ticrhten the purse strings. Having spent 10 disheartening years seeking 

 to get an adequate ocean research prrtgram going in the eastern Pacific we have 

 been through this process several times. 



The costs of research at sea appear to landsmen to be exti-aordinarily high 

 when compared with the same sort of research done ashore on land problems. 

 This is true and inescapable. It costs the ocean scientist approximately .$1,000 

 per day more than the land scientist just to have a platform (the ship) to stand 



