ADVANCEMENT OF MARINE SCIENCES 53 



The families of 128,000 American commercial fishermen, a decline 

 of 33,000 in the past 10 years and 100,000 shoreworkers are dkectly 

 dependent on the catches at sea for their Kvelihood, and the industry 

 indirectly provides jobs for 300,000 other breadwinners. Fisheries 

 are the basic support of many shore communities and contribute to 

 the industrial welfare and economy of many port cities. 



Committee amendments to section 5 



Page 11, line 6, after the subsection designation "(a)" strike the 

 words "Make grants of funds" and substitute the words and punctua- 

 tion "Provide funds, by grants, including but not limited to long- 

 range grants, contracts, or otherwise,". This amendment has two 

 purposes, first to specifically provide for long-term grants, and, second, 

 to embrace contracts or other forms of assistance to scientists, labora- 

 tories, institutions, or other non-Federal agencies who may contribute 

 to the objectives of the program. 



Much testimony was given during the hearing on S. 901 on the 

 value of and need for long-term gi'ants. 



Dr. Clarence P. Idyll, of the University of Miami's Marine Lab- 

 oratory, told the committee: 



It is a very great necessitj', if oceanography is to advance 

 at the rate that we believe it should, that we have long- 

 term grants and not year-to-year grants. In my capacity 

 as head of the Fisheries Division at the University of Miami, 

 I spend far too much time attempting to renew short-term 

 grants. 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries does not have the 

 resources, and I am not certain whether it has the power, to 

 give long-term grants as opposed to contracts. 



We would like to suggest, sir, that the only part of the 

 bm that seems to requu-e modification is this; that the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries be authorized to set up a 

 granting agency to give long-term grants as opposed to con- 

 tracts so that organizations like ours will have long-term 

 grants whereby we can apply ourselves to problems that 

 need solution in the fisheries, 



James A. Snodgrass, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 

 offered similar testimony, but from the standpoint of general applica- 

 tion. He testified: 



One of the major problems which confronts aU of the 

 oceanographic institutions at the present time is the fact 

 that most research projects are funded over a short period 

 of time. * * * At the Scripps Institution the effect of 

 the short-term support has been to make nearly all of the 

 research projects assume the nature of crash programs. 

 From the support shop standpoint these crash programs 

 have the effect of producing severe excessive peak demands 

 which may require inordinate amounts of overtime and which 

 besides being tremendously wasteful do not always by any 

 means result in the construction of satisfactory instruments. 



Mr. Snodgrass' particular field is the development of scientific 

 instruments for oceanographic, including fisheries research. 



