2S2 



program, but it would work for orderly and 

 evolutionary progress into the sea. 



The Commission concludes that the new 

 agency should be composed of organizational 

 elements concerned primarily with scientific, 

 teclmical, and service functions necessary for 

 expanding planned use of the sea and its re- 

 sources, for monitoring and predicting the 

 state of the total air-sea environment, 

 and for exploring the feasibility and conse- 

 quences of environmental modification. 



New programs will l>e needed to fulfill some 

 of the functions which the Commission pro- 

 poses be discharged by the new agency ; oth- 

 ers are being performed today by existing 

 agencies. Their transfer to the National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency will per- 

 mit NOAA to make a strong beginning in 

 discharging the functions assigned to it. 



The Commission recommends that the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Agency initially be composed of the U.S. 

 Coast Guard, the Environmental Science 

 Services Administration, the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries (augmented by the 

 marine and anadromous fisheries func- 

 tions of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and 

 Wildlife), the National Sea Grant Pro- 

 gram, the U.S. Lake Survey, and the 

 National Oceanographic Data Center. 



Each of these proposed transfers is dis- 

 cussed in greater detail later in this chapter. 

 In addition to the recommended organiza- 

 tional transfers, 



The Commission recommends that the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Agency assume immediate responsibility 

 for: 



• Institutional support for University- 

 National Laboratories and Coastal Zone 

 Laboratories 



• Development of fundamental marine 

 technology 



• Formulation and implementation of 

 National Projects and grants to States 

 for coastal zone management 



• Development and coordination of 

 weather modification activities. 



Once established, NOAA could appropri- 

 ately assume responsibility also for funding 

 the National Center for Atmospheric Re- 

 search and the Antarctic research program 

 of the National Science Foundation, for 

 leading a {program of Arctic research, and 

 for providing logistic support for polar 

 programs. 



In considering the composition of the pro- 

 posed National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Agency, the Commission rejected the idea of 

 consolidating all Federal marine and atmos- 

 pheric functions into a single, massive or- 

 ganization. Some such functions which will 

 remain outside NOAA are integral to the 

 agency which performs them. Although they 

 should be strengthened and should be fully 

 utilized by NOAA, they are best left where 

 they are. The National Aeronautics and 

 Space Administration's (NASA) oceanog- 

 raphy-f rom-space program and the Atomic 

 Energy Commission's (AEO) various ma- 

 rine-related nuclear energy programs are ex- 

 amples, as are the strong marine programs of 

 the Navy, the Corps of Engineers, the Na- 

 tional Science Foundation, and the marine- 

 related water management programs of the 

 Department of the Interior. 



Nonetheless, the size and scope of the 

 program recommended by the Commission 

 to be conducted by NOAA are such as to re- 

 quire that NOAA, at least initially, be an 

 independent agency reporting directly to the 

 President, rather than an agency of one of 

 the existing departments. Especially in 

 getting a major and diverse efl'ort underway, 



