175 



under tlie aegis of the International Council 

 of Scientific Unions? Or by some combina- 

 tion of the two ? What kind 'of work should 

 the Decade emjiliasize? The Commission is in- 

 clined to the view that the United States 

 should strive for a program oriented largely 

 to exploratory, survey, and research work 

 rather than to detailed studies aimed directly 

 at resource exploitation. 



Wliat should be the nature and magnitude 

 of the U.S. contribution? On the one hand, 

 a contribution consisting only of activities 

 the United States would undertake, even if 

 there wei"e no Decade, may not spur the inter- 

 national coo^jeration which is the program's 

 aim. On the other hand, international coop- 

 eration in activities which would have little 

 other \alue to the United States may not 

 attract sufficient support at home. The activi- 

 ties embraced within the Decade should fall 

 between these extremes. 



The Commission concludes that the mech- 

 anism for coordination and planning on the 

 international level exists in the International 

 Oceanographic Commission, working with 

 other international organizations, particu- 

 larly with the achnce and participation of 

 constituent groups of the International 

 Council of Scientific Unions. 



Planning and coordination of U.S. activ- 

 ities in the Decade of Ocean Exploration 

 should be accomplislied under the lead of the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency 

 (NOAA) witli the assistance of other Fed- 

 eral agencies, the appropriate bodies of the 

 National Academy of Sciences and National 

 Academy of Engineering, and industrial 

 groups. Tlie execution of the U.S. Decade 

 program should be focused in NOAA and the 

 University-National Laboratories with as- 

 sistance by industry. 



Each nation must decide what its own con- 

 tributions to the Decade will be. The^? deci- 

 sions, or antici])ati(>n of tlieni, will pl;iy an 



important part in determining tlie objectives 

 and management of the Decade. 



The Commission strongly endorses the 

 concept of an International Decade of Ocean 

 Exploration. We commend the decision to 

 refrain from taking unilateral action before 

 attempting to specify a plan for the Decade 

 activities. We caution particularly against 

 raising expectations beyond the commit- 

 ments actually made or forthcoming. We are 

 in fact concerned about the ability of the 

 ITnited States to meet present connnitments 

 to such ongoing international scientific pro- 

 grams as the International Hydrologic 

 Decade and the International Biological 

 Program. 



In any case, the Nation's program to ex- 

 l)lore the seas must not be conditioned on in- 

 ternational acceptance of the Decade. Our 

 own national interests dictate that we con- 

 tinue and expand significantly our present 

 ocean exploration efforts, many of which are 

 already being conducted with extensive in- 

 ternational cooperation. 



The Commission recommends that the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Agency take the lead in organizing a 

 program to explore and understand the 

 deep oceans to meet the national needs; 

 it strongly endorses the proposal for an 

 International Decade of Ocean Explora- 

 tion as an excellent vehicle to bring about 

 international collaboration in this effort. 



The Technology 



The key to the study of the deep ocean 

 lies in the ability to deploy present tech- 

 nological capabilities etfectively and to focus 

 on a number of critical technological de- 

 velopments which will provide the capaliil- 

 ity to do in the future what cannot be done 

 today. It is tiie view of the Commission that 

 tliere is no single device or system, manned 



