ADVANCEMENT OF MARINE SCIENCES 59 



Lack of progress in fisheries research has been reflected in the total 

 value of the harvest from the seas in recent years. Value (to pro- 

 ducers) of the 1960 catch was estimated at $347 million, $1 million 

 more than in 1959. But in 1958 it was $371 million; in 1957, $351 

 million; in 1956, $362 million. In only 1 year of the past decade, 

 1955, was it less than in 1959 and 1960, when it dropped to $336 

 million. In 1954 it was $356 million; in 1953, $352 million; and in 

 each of the 2 years before that $360 million. 



During this decade the population increased, production in most 

 fields of endeavor increased, values increased with inflationary pres- 

 sm'es, but the fisheries industry remained static and the expansion of 

 fisheries research was restricted by a paucity of research ships and 

 facilities. 



For operation by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries of new fisheries 

 research and exploration ships which would be constructed under pro- 

 visions of this bill, section 6 authorizes such sums as are necessary, 

 subject to tlie proviso that these operation costs not exceed $3,400,000 

 per year. 



It is also stated in subsection (c) of section 6 that, in programing 

 operations of such ships, the Secretary of the Interior shall give full 

 consideration to the needs for such operations in the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, other 

 marine areas of present or potential commercial miportance, and the 

 Great Lakes. 



AH of the seas around us and the Great Lakes which bound eight of 

 our Northern States liave a wealth of fisheries resources which can 

 affect the economy and increase emplojmient not only in the adjacent 

 land areas but of the Nation. The Bureau of Commercial Fislieries, 

 in the opinion of the committee, should give attention to all of these 

 areas and seek, through research and exploration, to develop the rich 

 fisheries resources nearby. 



Authorized in this s'ection also are such sums as are necessary for 

 inaugurating, developing, or expanding new ocean resource studies 

 and surveys and for expansion of facilities for fisheries research. 

 These facilities would include oceanaria, laboratories, unmanned 

 buoys for recording continuous ocean data, mesoscaphs for biological 

 observations, and automatic continuous plankton samplers. 



Soviet Russia and Japan botli have bathyspheres which may be 

 suspended by cable from a ship into some of the deeper layers of the 

 ocean where fish may live, and Russia also has adapted a submarine, 

 the Severyanka, for fisheries research. 



A mesoscaph, like a bathyscaph, would not require cable suspension. 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries operates 18 laboratories, some 

 new, some occupying surplus buildings of otlier agencies, and some as 

 antiquated as its research ships. 



The one fisheries laboratory on the Great Lakes operated by the 

 Bureau is housed in an ancient residence on the campus of the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, which Bureau officials describe as a "ramshackle, 

 overcrowded fire hazard." 



The Bureau's radio biological laboratory at Beaufort, N.C., is 

 lodged in the basement of an old building, and has been flooded five 

 times by hurricanes. The last flooding caused damage and loss to 

 instruments and equipment estimated at $20,000. 



