485 



HUMAN. PHYSICAL, AND FISCAL RESOURCES 

 8 



147 



I TT 4 I 6 I 8 I 10112 I 14 i 16 j 18 | 2ol 22 | 2 H 26 | 28 ] 30 | 32 

 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 



Age (years) 

 FIGURE 4-18 Age of federal oceanographic fleet. 



and geophysics has the most ship days, followed by physical ocean- 

 ography. The pattern of use, particularly for ships more than 150 

 feet long, is remarkably stable and probably indicates the future 

 use of ships (Figure 4-19). 



As discussed in earlier chapters, a significant development in 

 oceanography is the increased number of large, long-term research 

 activities planned by the academic oceanographic community. These 

 include the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, 

 WOCE, JGOFS, and RIDGE. These major programs account for 

 significant use of the larger ships. 



Present trends suggest that research iji coastal oceanography 

 will continue to be important over the next decade because it is 

 the primary interest of most federal mission agencies, states, and 

 municipalities. Although some future coastal research efforts will 

 be well served by some of the existing research vessels {Oceanus 

 or Cape class), smaller research vessels are also needed. Specifi- 

 cally, these new vessels should be capable of working at sea for up 

 to 20 days at a time, at a cost of about $3,000 per day, and their 



