116 



Subcommittee on Military Research and Development 



of the House National Security Committee 



Subcommittee on Energy and Environment 



of the House Committee on Science 



Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans 



of the House Committee on Resources 



Joint Hearing on: 



Leveraging National Oceanographic Capabilities 



January 25, 199 6 



Testimony^f Robert A. Fro^h 



Senior Research Fellow^nd^Adjunct Lecturer 



Center for Scieftce— and'^nternational Affairs 



John F. Kennedy School of Government 



Harvard University 



Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, my name is Robert A. 

 Frosch, and I am honored to testify before you today on the 

 topic: Leveraging National Oceanographic Capabilities. 



I began my professional career in 1951 as a research scientist, 

 and later Director, of Hudson Laboratories, created and operated 

 by Columbia University at the request of the Navy, to study the 

 oceanographic factors that influenced the long range propagation 

 of sound in the oceans. The purpose of this research was to build 

 a foundation of knowledge, and to find out how to exploit the 

 knowledge to make possible long range detection of submarines. 

 From 1966 through 1972 I was Assistant Secretary of the Navy for 

 Research and Development. I have also been Assistant Executive 

 Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) , and 

 Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space 

 Administration (NASA) . I came to the Kennedy School when I 

 retired from General Motors Corporation after eleven years as 

 Vice Resident in charge of Research Laboratories and later the 

 Research and Development Center. I am currently a Trustee of the 

 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 



I appear today as a witness purely as an individual, representing 

 no organization. In my brief remarks I want only to make several 

 simple points, without going deeply into detail. 



This planet is dominated by its oceans, which cover some 70% of 

 its surface, play a major role in controlling its climate and 

 weather, and mold and influence its shorelines. In the United 

 States, twenty four of our states border on salt water, more than 

 half our population lives on the 10% of our land which is 

 coastal, a large fraction of our jobs are in coastal areas, and a 

 third of our Gross National Product (GNP) is linked to the 

 coastal zone through fishing, transportation, recreation, and 



