i. OPENING REMARKS 



Donald L. McKernan 



Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 Washington, D. C. 



Welcome to this Government-Industry Symposiuai on 

 Oceanogr aphic Instrumentation. Many of you have traveled great 

 distances to attend, and your interest and efforts are impressive. 

 It is regretted that all of those who wished to attend could not do 

 so for limitation of space. 



The President of the United States in his letter of 

 March 29, 19^1, to the President of the Senate called for increased 

 efforts in the broad field of oceanography to chart and map the 

 bottom topography accurately, and to increase our knowledge of 

 the physical, chemical, and biological phenomena of the sea. He 

 wrote: 'Knowledge of the oceans is more than a matter of curio- 

 sity. Our very survival may hang on it. Although an voider standing 

 of our nnarine environment and maps of the ocean floor would afford 

 our military forces a demonstrable advantage, we have thus far neg- 

 lected oceanography. We do not have adequate charts of more than 



one or two percent of the oceans The seas also offer a 



wealth of nutritional resources. They already are a principal 

 source of protein. They can provide many times the current food 

 supply if we but learn how to garner and husband this self-renewing 

 larder. To meet the vast needs of an expanding population, the 

 body of the sea must be made more available. Within two decades, 

 our own nation will require over a nniliion more tons of seafood 

 than we now harvest. " 



Past oceanographic surveys and research have been studied by 

 Government and non-Government research agencies, innportant 

 Congressional Committees, and private groups to assess the Nation's 

 needs in the whole broad field of oceanography during the coming 

 years. A ten-year program is being executed which implements 

 the President's desire to broaden the scope of research and to in- 

 crease our knowledge of the oceans. This program includes new 

 ships, new shore facilities, many new instruments, and novel 

 structures with which to probe the depths of the ocean. 



