22 



Oceanography — The Ten Years Ahead 



routes, with improvements both in comfort and 

 economy. It is lii^ely to be many years before the 

 quality of the fleet as a whole is much affected. 



In this context, proposals regularly appear for 

 consideration of a submarine tanker, or even a 

 submarine cargo ship. It is true that, in principle, 

 the absence of wave-making resistance would per- 

 mit very large submarines to attain speeds suffi- 

 ciently high to cut crossing times to the point 

 where the high initial costs might be more quickly 

 amortized than is the case in surface ships. But the 

 payoff is uncertain and the date for this develop- 

 ment is not felt to be near. 



Finally, research continues on techniques to 

 minimize the fouling of ship hulls by barnacles 

 and marine organisms, and the associated hull 

 roughness that reduces ship speed and increases 

 propulsion costs. 



F. Recreation Industry 



Seagoing and seaside recreation has also within 

 the last few years become a major industry. Swim- 

 ming and bathing have traditionally been the most 

 popular recreational uses of the sea, and in terms 

 of the number of people who patronize our 

 beaches and shore areas they still are. In terms 

 of dollars spent in sports, however, they are far 

 outclassed by the pleasure craft lovers. Something 

 over 37 million Americans spent about $2.5 billion 

 last year on boats and boating. The size of the 

 pleasure fleet is now approximately 7-1/2 million 

 pleasure boats, on inland and coastal waters — an 

 increase of 500 percent over 1958; sport fishing in 

 offshore waters has passed the half billion dollar a 

 year mark. 



The states and Federal Government are hard 

 pressed to acquire or even preserve beach and 

 shoreline recreation areas to meet the increasing 

 demands. Commercial and private interests are 

 fast acquiring choice areas and erosion is affecting 

 many others. In recognition of the urgency of the 

 situation, the 87th Congress authorized the estab- 

 lishment of three national seashores, one on Cape 

 Cod, one at Point Reyes in California, and one on 

 Padre Island in Texas, together totaling 127,000 

 acres. 



Two underwater nature trails have been devel- 

 oped in the Virgin Islands by the National Park 

 Service to meet the growing demand for this type 

 of facility, and a large area called the Key Largo 

 Coral Reef Preserve has been set aside adjacent to 

 Florida's Pennecamp State Park. 



The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife 

 spends nearly $15 million annually on behalf of 

 sport fishermen, though only a small portion of 

 this (less than 2 percent in 1 963) is in oceanography. 



The rising traffic of inexperienced pleasure 

 boaters is creating a hazard to themselves and 

 others, raising questions about how to help assure 

 their safety. For example, there were over 3000 

 recreational boating accidents reported in 1961 

 in which over $4 million in damage was done, 1 100 

 lives were lost, and over 1000 persons injured. 

 Nearly 300 of the fatalities resulted from capsiz- 

 ings in which weather or high seas was presumably 

 a factor, so that improved wave and storm warn- 

 ings might be of some help. Marine biological 

 research would also foster understanding of "red 

 tides," swarms of biological organisms that kill 

 fish and inundate and make a seashore tempo- 

 rarily unusable. 



It is clear that the growing size of the recreation 

 industry is a measure of the rising value of seaside 

 and ocean-going recreation to the general public 

 and of the increased federal responsibility to con- 

 serve it for the benefit of all. 



G. Summary 



Oceanographic scientists and people in the fish- 

 ing, shipping, oil, mining, and recreation indus- 

 tries constitute groups each benefiting in some 

 special way from oceanographic knowledge. One 

 of these groups, the scientists, is almost wholly 

 dependent on government support of oceanog- 

 raphy for its livelihood. A second, fishing, cannot 

 expect to compete in the modern world without 

 the benefit of government supported oceanog- 

 raphy. The oil industry owes a great deal of its 

 recent expansion to marine geology but has ob- 

 tained much of it privately. Shipping, a subsi- 

 dized industry, may in the future benefit margin- 

 ally if it takes advantage of certain oceanographic 

 services such as wave forecasting. Mining is de- 

 terred from expanding into the sea by high risks 

 and costs and, being satisfied with terrestrial re- 

 sources, looks to government to underwrite the 

 risk of marine exploration. The recreation indus- 

 try is flourishing but the greatly increased recre- 

 ation-seeking public is endangering its own recre- 

 ation resources by overcrowding. Its full enjoy- 

 ment of the sea can probably be assured only by 

 government action to conserve this valuable 

 resource. 



