EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 57 



From the standpoint of a civilian agency who uses these facilities, 

 and who is represented on the governing body, I would say that this 

 has been a tremendous success. It is exciting and stimulating to all 

 of our scientists to see the coordination and cooperation between 

 various departments of Government who arc bringing together their 

 information in one center. It means we know where we can go for 

 data. Furthermore, we have a voice in how it is arranged and how 

 it is put together. 



This is new, of course. There are lots of bugs in it, but, never- 

 theless, it is working very well. 



We have many other accomplishments, Mr. Chairman, that are 

 important to me, perhaps, because I am not an instrumentation spe- 

 cialist myself, as you are well aware, I am a biologist, and I suspect 

 that I have learned more about instruments from my participation in 

 this Committee than anyone else. 



But one minor example of cooperation that has resulted from the 

 deliberations of these various panels of the ICO has been the planning 

 of oceanographic facilities, or the discussion of oceanographic facilities 

 in the Pacific Northwest. Two committees, our own and the Research 

 Panel, met in Seattle and discussed with various people at the Univer- 

 sity of Washington and the Government agencies the needs in this 

 area. 



We have been largely guided — we and the various Government 

 agencies, I mean — in our funding by the deliberations and the coor- 

 dination that has been carried out by these regional meetings. It is 

 our plan in the ICO to continue these, and to visit other parts of the 

 country where there are substantial establishments by various de- 

 partments carrying out programs in oceanography. We will see 

 where further coordination of physical facilities and of programs 

 might be carried out right on the spot, talking to people that are 

 right in these areas. 



I am sure Dr. Maxwell, who will meet with you and discuss with 

 you the Research Panel, will discuss this in perhaps greater length. 



Mr. Chairman, I believe you mentioned when we started yesterday, 

 when you started this series of discussions, that you would like to 

 know something about future plans, and in our panel we have been 

 considering this matter of future plans at some length. I certainly 

 don't mean to imply that we have resolved all of the problems of co- 

 ordination in Government, because we haven't, but I believe that 

 we have made substantial contribution toward this coordination. 



We are thinking this year, for example, in terms of observational 

 oceanographic buoys and systems of taking observations of ccean 

 phenomena by telemetering buoys. These would take the tempera- 

 tures and the chemical composition of the water, perhaps eventually 

 even certain aspects of the biological composition of the water, and 

 telemeter this into centers where it could be compiled and used by 

 scientists. Maybe some of us who are prone to seasickness when 

 we go to sea can simply sit in our office and get these observations 

 directly from such systems. 



These are almost magical to a biologist who does not have specialized 

 training in electronics, but I am told by experts in this field that we 

 are in this particular area right now, and that we do have such systems 

 that are now being tested, and that these are very successful. 



