Chapter VI 



ADVANCING THE 



NATIONAL CAPABILITY IN 



MARINE SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY 



Behind the emphasis in the Federal Ocean Program on marine life and 

 environment and on resource management and improved levels of marine 

 scientific services, a broad program of supporting research and development 

 is building the capabilities we must have today and tomorrow. Such efTorts 

 conducted by the Federal agencies, or supported by them in commercial and 

 private institutions, work at the threshholds of marine science and technology. 

 From them will come new generations of scientific talent and marine science 

 services, knowledge and hardware man needs to live and work beneath the 

 sea, new views of our planet's history, ways to measure oceanic processes from 

 space, and continued impetus for American success in marine transportation 

 and commerce. 



Major programs of cooperative research take massive arrays of instru- 

 ments and platforms into the marine environment and provide opportuni- 

 ties for early applications of new knowledge and technology. This effort links 

 Federal agencies in projects in the interest of States and the Nation and links 

 the United States with other nations for the benefit of all mankind. 



Sea Grant 



The year 1971 marked the beginning of what may be described as "phase 

 two" of the Sea Grant institutional program. The relatively small univer- 

 sities were able to organize quickly for broadly based Sea Grant institutional 

 operations, but the larger universities, faced with problems of structuring 

 that the multidisciplinary program Sea Grant requires, began more slowly. 

 In September 1971, one of the original intents of the Sea Grant College and 

 Program Act was achieved when the Secretary of Commerce designated the 

 first four Sea Grant Colleges — the University of Washington, the Univer- 

 sity of Rhode Island, Oregon State University, and Texas A&M University. 



Sea Grant programs were developed on all nine campuses of the Univer- 

 sity of California system under the leadership of the La Jolla campus and 



The research submersible, Alvin, returns from a successful dive in the Florida Straits. 

 Capable of diving to 6,000 feet, Alvin is representative of the new-generation vehicles 

 behind Manned Undersea and Technology activities in the Federal Ocean Program. 



77 



