EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 71 



Certainly, I may say, this idea of consolidating appeals to me a 

 great deal, because I know the chairman is interested in economy, 

 but certainly no questions like that would be raised when you came to 

 facilities for measuring the orbit of Colonel Glenn, or something like 

 that, when this may be much more important that we are doing. 



I may say that I am very sympathetic to the chairman's position 

 here, when I listen to the differences that come up as between two 

 committees. 



I got the impression, however, if I may say, Mr. Chairman, that the 

 academic facilities as far as those that are engaged in the places like 

 the schools and colleges of our country, they don't feel that they can 

 join together with some of the agencies of Government and have joint 

 facilities because it just isn't going to be practical from their stand- 

 point, and I hope that that will be fully looked into. I am for economy 

 as much as we can possibly do so, but not at the expense of scientific 

 freedom to carry on this research work. 



Mr. Chairman, I talked too much. 



Mr. Dingell. Not at all. You have been very helpful. 



Mr. McKernan. Well, commenting on that just briefly, Mr. 

 Chairman, if you don't mind, I tend to agree that there is a danger in 

 too much coordination, that is, trying to pull facilities together too 

 much at the disadvantage of some of these people and yet, I am sure 

 you will agree that we ought to examine these things, whatever we 

 decide to do, it ought to be in an area of complete understanding of 

 the problems and this is what I think the panels of the ICO are 

 attempting to do, to examine these things and see what is best. Then 

 we have the advantage of, in a sense, a feed in from the academic 

 institutions through the National Academy of Sciences Committee on 

 Oceanography and, for example, in our own panel, a member of the 

 faculty of the University of Washington, Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, has been 

 active and this has helped, you see. 



Air. Pelly. I am told that it is almost impossible to schedule 

 scientific research, and tie it in, maybe with a particular voyage that 

 is scheduled ahead of time for the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and 

 that altogether, it is just very difficult to coordinate the various 

 programs. 



Mr. McKernan. Of course, it really depends upon the scientific 

 project underway. Sometimes this is difficult, and sometimes it is 

 not. Many times, when it is not, it has not been done in the past. 

 We are trying to, in effect, correct this, so that when it is possible, 

 it is done, and recognize it when it is not possible that it doesn't have 

 to be done. 



You don't have to cram some scientist aboard a boat that is going 

 to be out for 4 months taking surveys when what he wants is perhaps 

 a 1-day trip to examine some special phenomenon in the ocean. 



Mr. Pelly. Does the panel keep minutes, and are those minutes 

 available to the committee, for example, as to the discussions on these 

 various projects? 



Mr. McKernan. We have not kept formal minutes of the panel's 

 sessions in ICO, but we have kept informal minutes for the information 

 of our own people. 



Mr. Pelly. It would seem to me that maybe if we did formalize 

 the panels, then there wouldn't be a necessity to keep minutes. It 

 might be easier for someone to go back and find out why there had 



