EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 21 



[Press release, June 13, 1960 — Anne Wheaton, Associate Press Secretary to the President] 



The White House 



The White House announced today that the Federal Government will lend sup- 

 port to the Nation's leading oceanographers in an international expedition to the 

 Indian Ocean. The expedition, a scientific project of extraordinary scope and 

 magnitude, will begin late this year and extend through 1964. It will greatly 

 extend man's knowledge of these least-known waters of the world, which cover 

 a seventh of the earth's surface. 



Like the recent International Geophysical Year, the International Indian 

 Ocean Expedition will incorporate a many-sided scientific attack on a single area of 

 interest under the leadership of a special committee of the International Council 

 of Scientific Unions, a nongovernmental organization with headquarters in 

 The Hague. Scientific responsibility for U.S. participation will be borne by the 

 National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, national representative 

 to the International Council. 



Acting upon the recommendation of the Federal Council for Science and 

 Technology and the Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, 

 the President approved a plan calling for key contributions by the Department 

 of the Navy and the National Science Foundation. The Navy will make avail- 

 able oceanographic ships sponsored by the Navy and operated by leading U.S. 

 oceanographic institutions. The Foundation will be responsible for planning and 

 coordinating Federal support for U.S. participation in the program including the 

 provision of financial support. 



Responsibility for planning the scientific content of the U.S. program has been 

 assigned by the Academy-Research Council to its Committee on Oceanography. 

 The Committee has expressed the hope that the expedition, in addition to its 

 anticipated contributions to fundamental knowledge, will afford unusual bene- 

 fits to the heavily populated, protein-deficient nations on the ocean's perim- 

 eter, both in terms of increased fish harvests and in the further training of local 

 scientists and technologists in the techniques of oceanographic research. 



The expedition's peak activity is expected to occur during 1962 and 1963 when 

 ships and scientific personnel from well over a dozen nations will be conducting 

 biology, geophysics, and submarine geology. 



Details of the U.S. program will be worked out following a general planning 

 session of participating nations to be convened in Copenhagen in July by the 

 Special Committee on Oceanic Research of the International Council of Scientific 

 Unions. 



Note. — A more complete description of the International Indian Ocean. Ex- 

 pedition is attached. 



A Preliminaky Prospectus on the International Indian Ocean 



Expedition 



(The following material has been prepared by office of the Coordinator of the 

 International Indian Ocean Expedition to describe the area under exploration, 

 design of the projected expedition, scientific problems to be studied, and their 

 practical implications. Further information on the scientific program may be 

 obtained from the Information Office of the National Academy of Sciences- 

 National Research Council.) 



THE INDIAN OCEAN 



Physical characteristics. — Although the Indian Ocean's 28 million square miles 

 cover over 14 percent of the earth's surface, relatively little is known or under- 

 stood about the region, which has an area five and a half times that of Antarctica 

 and greater than that of Asia and Africa combined. The ocean's behavior 

 affects all of these continents, yet only the most general features of its topography 

 and circulation and the distribution of living organisms are known. For instance, 

 more than 300 times as many bathythermograph observations have been taken 

 in the North Atlantic as in the Indian Ocean; almost half of the area has had 

 no biological sampling and in most of the remainder observations range from 

 four to one per 5-degree square. 



The Indian Ocean has several unique characteristics. Nowhere else in the 

 world is there a similar seasonal reversal of the prevailing wind. The wind 

 system in that part of the ocean lying above the equator is characterized by the 

 two monsoons, one blowing from the northeast for approximately 6 months and 

 the other blowing from the southwest for the rest of the year. This phenomenon 



