70 EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 



We have interest in knowing whether or not there are resources in the 

 Indian Ocean which might be harvested. 



Mr. Dingell. Thank you, Mr. McKernan. 



Any more questions? 



Mr. Pelly? 



Mr. Pelly. Mr. Chairman, I might comment, it is an awful 

 comedown — now this is a pun — to come from the Space Committee 

 yesterday and come down back to earth. There we are being offered 

 a proposed budget of, I think, $3.7 billion, and here I am worrying 

 about how we are going to have some housing for people that want to 

 do a little research work down in Friday Harbor, and the one question 

 I have in connection with facilities, is there any possible way that the 

 Federal Government could assist a university in stimulating some 

 housing for a research station such as we have there at Puget Sound? 



Mr. McKernan. I am not going to offer money from other Gov- 

 ernment agencies, but I would expect that there is consideration of 

 research needs in facilities by agencies, various agencies of Govern- 

 ment, and the university probably is pretty familiar with this, Mr. 

 Pelly, because they deal very directly with the Office of Naval Research 

 and with the National Science Foundation as well as with ourselves. 



Mr. Pelly. I wondered if your panel would ever consider it would 

 be helpful on matters like that which I understand are vital. As I 

 understand, we have some 60 positions that aren't filled in the Federal 

 Government today because we haven't trained enough people in 

 oceanographic research. And it is only through the facilities such as 

 we have there that you can ever hope to fill the need. 



Mr. McKernan. Well, we are very much interested in the training 

 of oceanographers. You are going to hear from the chairman of that 

 panel of ICO later in this session. Perhaps he can discuss this matter 

 more fully than I, but with respect to facilities, we are always willing 

 to discuss anything along these lines, although I couldn't 



Mr. Pelly. Well, for space, you can get hundreds of millions of 

 dollars for facilities, and nobody would ever question it; you need 

 a dock to house an oceanographic vessel and the universities are hard 

 put to it to know where to go to get the funds. 



Mr. McKernan. Yes. Of course, this committee has been ex- 

 tremely important in helping us, we in the Federal Government who 

 are budgeting for oceanography. This committee has been very 

 important in bringing before the Congress as well as the public the 

 importance of expanding the Nation's oceanographic program. I 

 can't emphasize that too much. 



Mr. Pelly. The chairman is very much interested, I know, in 

 legislation to try to formalize some of the informal committees and 

 panels that have been carrying on the work in order to try to facilitate 

 getting adequate interest and funds to carry on the necassary work. 

 We are told that it isn't needed, and the administration is against it. 

 Well, I am just wondering that if the Science and Astronautics Com- 

 mittee can talk in terms of billions of dollars, where I can't see that 

 there is nearly the resources for man that maybe there will be down in 

 our oceans, and, as I say, it is very difficult sometimes to realize, for 

 me not to want to support the Miller bill, for example, and see it 

 reported to the floor, because the only thing I would fear in that con- 

 nection is that it would not be enacted into law, and it might actually 

 hurt, rather than help. 



