Chapter I 

 INTRODUCTION 



Three questions have been examined at the out- 

 set before proceeding to the plan itself. They 

 are: 



Why is this plan needed? 



For whom is it written? 



What is it supposed to do? 



A. Why a Long-Range Plan? 



This plan is needed for two reasons. The first 

 is to provide a perspective, both over the field 

 of oceanography as a whole and over the "^me 

 period ahead, within which the relationship of 

 the highly varied and diverse activities to each 

 other and to the overall effort can be seen. The 

 second reason is to assure that this overall effort 

 is responsive to the national interest. 



Perspective is needed because oceanography, 

 always a complex of pure and applied programs 

 in a variety of disciplines involving numerous 

 institutions, has grown so rapidly during the past 

 five years that it is increasingly difficult for people 

 concerned with one aspect of the field to be well- 

 informed about work being carried on elsewhere 

 without a plan and without the coordination 

 afforded by a plan. The danger is that inadvertent 

 duplication and waste of effort will occur on the 

 one hand and, far more likely, that opportunities 

 for joint largie-scale efforts which could tackle 

 problems beyond the scope of individual agencies 

 or laboratories will be overlooked on the other. 

 Furthermore, though primary support for ocea- 

 nography now comes from the Federal Govern- 

 ment it is applied through some 20 separate offices 

 and bureaus, each charged with a ^lfferent basic 

 mission. Oceanography, though still small com- 

 pared to many other programs, has now become 

 large enough to have to face up to one of the re- 

 quirements associated with size, diversity, and a 

 common source of support — the requirement for 

 centralized planning. 



Such planning is all the more important in 

 terms of making most effective use of research 

 resources when considering that oceanography 

 is small with respect to some indices of its prac- 

 tical importance. The burgeoning world popula- 

 tion, particularly in the underdeveloped areas, 

 makes the oceans with their huge and inefficiently 

 exploited food resources of inevitable and in- 



creasing^ value to humanity as a whole. Questions 

 of how to manage this resource wisely and well 

 can only be answered in the international arena, 

 since the fish of the sea acknowledge no national 

 boundaries. Oceanographic knowledge and un- 

 derstanding is essential if valid purpose is to enter 

 our approach to such management. 



Other indices of the strategic importance of the 

 oceans are becoming ever more clearly recognized. 

 The cloak of concealment provided by a medium 

 which is virtually opaque to all forms of energy 

 except sound is of immense military significance. 

 For example, it permits us to deploy the Polaris 

 submarine system, a component of our deterrent 

 forces which is virtually nonpreemptable, and 

 thus to reduce the temptation a would-be agressor 

 might otherwise feel to launch a surprise attack 

 on our complex of retaliatory wea^ns systems. 

 Further understanding and exploitation of both 

 the defensive and offensive potentialities of under- 

 water sound transmission and related ocean phe- 

 nomena is then a clear military necessity. 



Other aspects of the oceans affecting all or large 

 numbers of us in common include the health haz- 

 ard posed by pollution from industrial wastes 

 such as oil, chemicals, sewage, etc. and from 

 radioactive substances; danger to life and property 

 from waves and flooding; risk to shipping from 

 floating ice, storms and navigational hazards; 

 and threats to resources such as the recreational 

 value of the seas which should be common prop- 

 erty. Again, our programs in these areas must 

 reckon with the policies and actions of other 

 nations and be motivated by a concern for the 

 public good. 



There are, of course, nany special groups with- 

 in the Nation that are concerned with oceanog- 

 raphy in their own behalf, without explicitly 

 equating their interest to that of the Nation as a 

 whole. Fostering their healthy development, 

 subject to normal political, social, and economic 

 constraints, is almost a definition of the national 

 interest. The fishing industry, the shipping in- 

 dustry, mining and oil industries, and in a sense 

 the scientific community, are among the groups 

 in our society for whom the oceans have a special 

 significance. Though the benefits accruing to 

 these segments of the Nation through federally 

 supported programs in oceanography cannot be 



