EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 69 



which he is engaged. Now in this instance, I would agree with him 

 that the need for standardization is not very great. 



On the other hand, if we are going to send survey ships out all over 

 the world, if we are going to cooperate broadly with other nations, it is 

 very necessary to take plankton tows, for example, in somewhat the 

 same manner, and take our temperatures at approximately the same 

 depth, or at least have some system of connecting these so that we 

 can understand the ocean currents and the ocean weather very broadly 

 in the world's oceans. 



Mr. Bauer. I would like to point out, Mr. Chairman, that yester- 

 day in the record, we introduced the organization of ICES in 1899, 

 and — 



the functions of the central bureau should be — 



I am quoting — 



to control the instruments and assure the uniformity of methods. 



It certainly has been in existence a long time. 



Mr. Dingell. By the way, Mr. McKernan, you are familiar with 

 the function that Mr. Bauer has referred to, are you not? 



Mr. McKernan. You mean ICES? Yes, Mr. Chairman, our 

 Bureau has sent an observer to ICES for, I think, about 15 years or 

 so. We are very familiar with the organization. We work very 

 closely with it in connection with the International Northwest Atlantic 

 Fisheries Commission. That is the Commission in the Northwest 

 Atlantic Ocean and of some 15 or so members of ICES, I think 12 of 

 them are members of what we call ICNAF, the International Commis- 

 sion for Northwest Atlantic Fisheries. 



Mr. Dingell. Incidentally, the United States does not belong to 

 this. 



Mr. McKernan. No. 



Mr. Dingell. I wonder why. 



Mr. McKernan. Because we don't have any direct interests in the 

 Northeast Atlantic, and it has always seemed to us that to send some- 

 one over as an observer, we can cooperate with their scientists without 

 spending an exorbitant amount of time in these places where we don't 

 have a direct interest. Perhaps we might have an interest in defense 

 at the present time, but that would be something that I would not be 

 quite so familiar with, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Dingell. Do we have a direct interest in the Indian Ocean, 

 for example, where we are doing significant exploratory work? 



Mr. McKernan. Well, in the Indian Ocean, of course, our scien- 

 tists have found or believe that there are some unusual circumstances 

 in this ocean, and in a sense, what they have done is to launch a rather 

 large international expedition to this particular area of the world, 

 where not too much is known. I think it is quite an experiment in 

 international cooperation, but I believe it would certainly be said to 

 be true that we don't have — our Government doesn't have — -much 

 in the way of direct interest here. 



I would add, however, that even our own Bureau is very much 

 interested in the fisheries resources of any nation in the world, since 

 some of our fishing fleets are developing great capacity for going large 

 distances. We have fleets that have fished in the central Pacific, in 

 the Society Islands, and are now fishing off the west coast of Africa. 



