ADVANCEMENT OF MARINE SCIENCES 15 



THE MENACE TO HEALTH FROM THE SEAS 



While man searches the sea for organisms and substances that will 

 improve man's healtli and alleviate his ills, man also is flooding the 

 margins of the seas with substances which peril man's health and 

 threaten to create new ills, thus placing a double burden on marine 

 biologists. 



As some scientists center their research on discovery of ''new miracle 

 drugs from the sea," others must concentrate on combating the effects 

 of dangerous pollution. 



Not only is the latter necessar}^ to protect the health of those on 

 land, but also to preserve in the fingers of the ocean called estuaries 

 and along its borders the fish and shellfish that man consumes. 



Dr. William J, Hargis, director of the Virginia State Fisheries 

 Laboratory at Gloucester, Va., in a statement to the committee made 

 in connection with its hearings on this legislation, sounded this 

 warning : 



Despite great present and future needs, man is despoiling 

 the oceans and estuaries at an ever increasing rate. For 

 example, pollution, e.g. radioactive wastes, industrial 

 wastes, domestic wastes, soil, farm and house pesti- 

 cides ; * * * are wreaking their havoc. 



Baldly, bluntly, the future of society depends on man's 

 not ruining the sea. But pressures to do so are increasing 

 as a result of the population explosion and the concomitant 

 industrial explosion. 



We must make wise use of our marine resources. This 

 calls for knowledge — knowledge demands research. Greater 

 research must be carried out. There is urgency for getting 

 this work done because the race to wrest facts from the sea is 

 slow and we fall behind more rapidly all the time. There is 

 urgency — great urgency. 



Dr. Lauren R. Donaldson, director of the Laboratory of Radiation 

 Biology, University of Washington, testified on the phase of con- 

 tamination with which he is most concerned. He stated: 



The development of space programs using nuclear devices, 

 of underwater nuclear powerplants and nuclear submarines, 

 of nuclear-powered merchant ships, of harbor-excavation 

 projects and of nuclear devices for creating new Panama 

 Canals, all will require a much more precise knowledge of the 

 means for disposing of radioactive wastes. 



We need in the immediate future intensive work on such 

 problems as the ultimate fate of radioactive materials in the 

 sea, on the rates of sedimentation and the bonding upon 

 bottom materials, on the biological recycling of radioactive 

 materials, and on the selective uptake of materials by 

 aquatic organisms. 



Very urgently needed, too, is a broad educational program 

 involving more trained high school and college instructors 

 working in the special fields of radiation biology * * * 

 Tiie Marine vSciences and Research Act of 1961, if enacted 

 into law, should go a long way toward coordinating the many 



