134 EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 



In general, the Panel's efforts have culminated in the form of reports 

 to the ICO. 



In June 1960 when the Panel was created, it met in nearly continu- 

 ous session for about a month. The product of these meetings was 

 the first effective coordination of oceanographic research programs 

 within the Federal Government. A report was issued on July 15, 

 1960, that contained a description of the fiscal year 1962 oceanographic 

 research programs and budgets broken down by agencies, along with 

 an evaluation of the programs and major changes that were antici- 

 pated. This represented a great stride forward, but the Panel was 

 not satisfied with its efforts. Although the report had achieved what 

 had never been done before — namely, to bring together, in one vol- 

 ume, all of the diverse oceanographic research programs of the 

 agencies, thus providing good coordination, the Panel still felt that 

 proper guidance was lacking. 



When the ICO established a separate Panel on Facilities, Equipment, 

 and Instrumentation early in 1961, it relieved the Research and 

 Facilities Panel of part of its responsibilities. This, in turn, enabled 

 the now reformed Research Panel to concentrate its efforts on a critical 

 review of the research programs with an eye toward providing more 

 positive guidance. The first step was to reorganize the research report 

 so that the oceanographic programs could be evaluated in terms of the 

 fundamental problems of the oceans. Accordingly, a new Panel re- 

 port was composed in which broad objectives were listed along with 

 the individual agency's research programs that contributed toward 

 attaining these objectives. 



This report, which will be a part of the ICO fiscal year 1963 national 

 oceanographic program, is still in draft form. I would like, however, 

 to give to you at this time a list of the research objectives in the report 

 so that you may have a feeling for its organization and contents. 



Objective 1: To describe the distribution of physical and chemical 

 properties of the ocean and to understand the dynamic processes which 

 affect this distribution. 



Objective 2: To determine the interrelationship of the ocean and 

 atmosphere. 



Objective 3: To determine the distribution, kind, and adaptation 

 of the living populations of the sea and to understand the interrela- 

 tionship of the marine organisms to the physical and chemical prop- 

 erties of the sea. 



Objective 4: To describe the sea floor and to understand its evolu- 

 tion; including the topography, geophysical nature, and subsurface 

 structure, with particular interest in the sea floor's relation to the 

 surrounding land masses. 



Objective 5: to determine if the oceans have been, or are being 

 significantly modified, or how they can be exploited to benefit man- 

 kind. 



Objective 6: To determine the impact of radioactivity and other 

 pollution on the ocean. 



I would like to point out to you that objective 6 has only recently 

 been added to our report, illustrating the document is not static, but 

 is being revised continually as conditions warrant. The panel be- 

 lieves that it has come a long way toward the development of an 

 integrated research program by using this approach of research objec- 

 tives to review the research programs, instead of the earlier method 



