90 OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 



matter of fellowships and improved facilities for teaching, HEW may 

 have an expanding responsibility as it relates to oceanography. 



8. U.S. Army— Beach Erosion Board 



The Army has had continuing interest in the gross behavior of the 

 sea as it concerns amphibious operations in the oversea movement 

 of troops and supplies. The Beach Erosion Board, however, has had 

 interest in certain details of oceanic research. This organization, 

 established during the 1930's and beginning a formal program of 

 research in 1946, deals with shallow water oceanography as it re- 

 lates to action of waves on beaches in their normal state and on 

 engineering relevant to the placing of structures to remedy this 

 action should it be considered detrimental. Research facilities are 

 located primarily at the laboratory in Washington, D.C. The budget 

 of the Beach Erosion Board has not been included as part of the 

 national oceanographic research program proposed by NASCO pre- 

 sumably because it is largely of an engineering nature, but the re- 

 lationship of their activities to other studies of the sea is obvious. 



9. U.S. Air Force 



The Air Force has had an interest in the broad aspects of the sea 

 as it relates to navigation over the sea, to the performance of radar 

 and missUe ranges in the proximity of the sea and to the location and 

 means of survival of flyers downed in the sea. 



10. Department of Justice 



The Department of Justice has responsibilities concerned with the 

 application of law at sea, both in territorial and international waters. 



11. Department oj State 



Inasmuch as the Department of State has broad and far-reaching 

 responsibilities for the national security of the United States and the 

 fostering of favorable relations with other countries, vii'tually all of 

 the military, economic, political, and even scientific implications of 

 the sea, in one manner or another, may be regarded as coming within 

 its jurisdiction: directly as it relates to treaties on such matters as 

 continental Hmits and fishing rights; indirectly, as it relates, for ex- 

 ample, to fostering of media for the international exchange of ocean- 

 ographic data and cooperation in international expeditions. 



From this recitation of various Government agencies having an 

 interest in activities in the sea, a number of functions appear to 

 overlap. Both the Office of Naval Research and the National Science 

 Foundation, for example, have statutory responsibilities for the spon- 

 sorship of basic research, and for fostering new facilities. The 

 Hydrographic Office and the Coast and Geodetic Survey have parallel 

 responsibilities in relation to the charting of the oceans. The Atomic 

 Energy Commission and the Public Health Service have complemen- 

 tar}^ responsibilities concerning protection of present and future 

 welfare of the health of the Nation from adverse biological effects of 

 radioactive waste; questions of policing may involve yet other agencies. 



Whereas this matter of possible overlap is of concern to some in 

 terms of unknowing and thus wasteful duplication, an even greater 

 and more likely malfunction in Government may occur when some 

 critically important project is neglected, either because each agency 

 pinched for funds has pious hopes that the other is assimaing cogni- 



