Appendix 2. Description of the 

 U.S. IDOE Program 



Origins 



The U.S. IDOE program owes much of its present shape and form 

 to the planning study conducted jointly by the National Academy of 

 Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering which produced the 

 report "An Oceanic Quest," ^ in which the IDOE was characterized by 

 ". . . long-term and continuing investigations of cooperative nature, 

 directed toward objectives of widespread interest concerned with more 

 effective utilization of the ocean and its resources." A number of specific 

 recommendations were made, including: organization of the U.S. effort 

 in four major program areas (geology and nonliving resources, biology 

 and living resources, physics and environmental prediction, geochemistry 

 and environmental change) ; inclusion in the overall effort of programs 

 in the development of new technology, establishment of new program 

 management procedures, and encouragement of associated social studies; 

 the importance of strengthening the possibilities and the apparatus for 

 international cooperation. The Academies' report estimated the funding 

 level required as on the order of $100 million or more per year, averaged 

 over the Decade — a level which was never even approached in actuality. 



In October 1969 the Vice President of the United States, acting 

 in his capacity as chairman of the National Council on Marine Resources 

 and Engineering Development, and speaking for the President, formally 

 announced the intention of the United States to participate in the Inter- 

 national Decade of Ocean Exploration, and assigned to the National 

 Science Foundation the responsibility for planning, managing and funding 

 the U.S. program. The Vice President set forth the following goals for 

 the program: 



^ "An Oceanic Quest, the International Decade of Ocean Exploration," National 

 Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, Washington, D.C., 

 1969. 



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