Current Problems 



25 



a unified subject at the undergraduate level 

 in a larger niunber of colleges. 



2. The establishment of a few posts for 

 men concerned with oceanography in a 

 number of universities, but attached to any 

 appropriate existing department. 



3. The development of a more balanced 

 staff to guide research at each of the major 

 oceanographic laboratories, through an in- 

 crease of personnel with tenure. 



4. The provision of graduate and post- 

 doctoral fellowships to enable outstanding 

 students to take advantage of available edu- 

 cational opportunities in this country and 

 abroad. 



THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM 



Prior to World War II the support avail- 

 able for oceanography outside the Govern- 

 ment services was roughly $300,000 per 

 year. This maintained the three larger 

 laboratories and the oceanographic work 

 at a few small biological stations. It also 

 operated three research vessels, of which 

 only one was capable of extended offshore 

 cruising. Including graduate students and 

 summer investigators a total of perhaps 120 

 people were able to take part in the ad- 

 vancement of the marine sciences. Full-time 

 researchers, including those holding univer- 

 sity professorships, did not total more than 

 twenty. Practically no support was received 

 from Federal or State funds except through 

 the regular budgets of the State univer- 

 sities. 



Since the war, substantial increase in 

 the assured resources of the three major 

 oceanographic laboratories has occurred 

 only at the Scripps Institution, where the 

 budget has been increased by about $180,- 

 000 per year. Thus the sum assured for 

 the purposes of these laboratories has only 

 increased from a pre-war level of $300,000 

 to $480,000 per year, but because of in- 

 creased costs, especially in operating ships, 

 at least $750,000 per year would be re- 

 quired to maintain the pre-war level of 

 activity. The discrepancy between this 

 sum and that now available, amounting to 

 $270,000 per year, is one cause of the 



difficulties under which these laboratories 

 now operate. 



Owing to the current interest in the 

 militar)' applications of oceanography and 

 a growing concern for fisheries, relatively 

 large sums of money have become available 

 for restricted purposes from Federal and 

 State funds. Fisheries investigations are 

 being supported by many of the states in 

 the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coasts, while 

 research in physical oceanography, sub- 

 marine geology, geophysics, and marine 

 meteorology is sponsored by various Fed- 

 eral agencies. As a result the total income 

 of the institutions carrying on oceano- 

 graphic research is now in the neighbor- 

 hood of $2,300,000, or three times the 

 sum required to maintain the pre-war 

 level of activity and five times the amount 

 now available in unrestricted funds. 



The effects of this great outpouring of 

 money from State and Federal sources are 

 not entirely healthy. No one knows how 

 long it will last or what direction the re- 

 quired investigations will take. The pro- 

 jects must be manned by people with 

 specialized training, yet very few have 

 tenure. In securing workers there is no 

 large field of employment to be drawn on 

 and into which they can return if the work 

 is terminated. Hence such adjustments 

 must be borne by the regular staffs of the 

 oceanographic laboratories and by budgets 

 which are disproportionately small. These 

 uncertainties tend to discourage able men 

 from work on Government-financed pro- 

 jects. 



Secondly, oceanography is not develop- 

 ing in a well-balanced manner. The atti- 

 tude of the men having responsibility for 

 the assignment of Government funds has 

 been very liberal. The direction of the 

 research and, to a considerable extent, 

 even the choice of projects have been left 

 to the staffs of the various laboratories. 

 However, there is no one agency in the 

 Government which clearly has the respon- 

 sibility fcr a balanced development of ma- 

 rine science. In consequence, broader bio- 

 logical and chemical problems have taken 

 second place to the physics and geology of 



