EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 135 



of simply listing together all of the agencies' separate programs. By 

 organizing the research report in this manner, it is possible to see that 

 the various agency programs are striving to achieve common goals. 

 It is also possible to identify areas where research effort needs to be 

 strengthened, thus enabling the panel to provide a measure of guid- 

 ance by feedback to the agency programs. Here I want to emphasize 

 that the panel does not dictate what research should be pursued, it 

 provides a mechanism whereby each agency can determine how its 

 own program fits in with others and where the overall program can 

 be continuously reviewed and monitored. 



We, as a panel, are still not satisfied that we are doing the best 

 possible job. One of our difficulties has been the lack of detailed 

 knowledge of each other's research programs. In an attempt to al- 

 leviate this difficulty and also at the same time to get firsthand in- 

 formation on present and planned oceanographic programs in a re- 

 stricted geographical area, the panel met as a group at Seattle, Wash. 



This meeting was held on October 2 and 3, 1961, in part at the 

 University of Washington and partly at the Seattle laboratory of the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in conjunction with the Seattle office 

 of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. The first day and a half of 

 meetings were devoted to educating the panel on the diverse marine 

 research activities in the Seattle area, while the last half day was spent 

 in a roundtable discussion where the panel gave its reactions to what 

 it had seen and learned. 



The meeting proved to be highly successful in that the panel came 

 away well informed, and also because the meeting had stimulated the 

 interest of the local activities to the point where a series of subsequent 

 meetings have been held in an attempt to better coordinate their efforts. 

 This coordination has been particularly effective in the determination 

 of an integrated plan for expansion of facilities in the area. In ad- 

 dition, as a result of this meeting, the Coast and Geodetic Survey has 

 established an annual program planning meeting in Seattle, at which 

 time any interested research group can provide an input to the Coast 

 Survey's program in the Pacific. 



A similar informative type meeting was held in Washington, D.C., 

 on January 24, 1962, when Dr. Gunter Seckel of the Hawaii laboratory 

 of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries presented a long-range re- 

 search and survey program for the central Pacific jointly to the Re- 

 search and Survey Panels. 



It is through meetings of the nature of the last two mentioned, that 

 each member of the Research Panel has been able to obtain a better 

 grasp of research programs outside his own agency. We hope to have 

 many more of these meetings. 



Future plans of the Research Panel include a thorough review of our 

 fiscal year 1963 research report with the idea of evolving from it a 

 long-range research program that can be scrutinized annually. This 

 would contain, in addition to the broad objectives I have already 

 mentioned, more detailed specific programs within these objectives 

 and the relative importance of each. By continually identifying each 

 year some of the major unsolved problems in the specific programs, 

 we should be able to provide knowledgeable guidance for the research 

 program without curtailing the freedom of the scientist or using 

 unwarranted direction. 



