is rather difficult to do because buoys and ships in general do not 

 do the same job. I feel that perhaps one could make a valid com- 

 parison by assuming that there are two operations, such as the 

 buoy-line operation and a ship operation, which occupied about the 

 same length of time and in which all of the data which are collected 

 are important. That is, no excess data was collected. Then we 

 might compare the economics on the basis of the cost per measure- 

 ment. 



What I have compared is an IGY cruise of the R/V Crawford 

 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the buoy line be- 

 tween Cape Cod and Bermuda. 



Crawford Cruise 10 involved four crossings in the Atlantic 

 Ocean. It was a long cruise, 3-1/2 to 4 months, and an economical 

 cruise. (The Crawford is a small but very efficient vessel.) The 

 work done was hydrographic stations and the prinnary reason they 

 were done was to take temperature and salinity sections. We may 

 logically put the entire cost of the trip on the temperature and 

 salinity measurements, since the trip would have gone for this 

 purpose alone. If one does this and takes the cost of the trip (pay 

 for the scientists, ship time, etc.), but does not charge for the 

 instrumentation (because Mr. Nansen developed this back in 

 1900) -- we find that each temperature and each salinity measure- 

 ment costs $21. 75. These measurements are three or four digit 

 numbers so the price is about $5 to $7 a digit. The sea water which 

 was captured in the Nansen bottles and brought up for the salinity 

 measurements costs $16. 30 per liter. If you are not facile in the 

 metric system, that is $11. 50 a fifth. 



In comparing these costs with the buoy line, I use ail the costs 

 of the instrument development, procurement, ship time, and 

 salaries. If I then total the number of current measurements which 

 we have available at the present time (3 to 4 months operation), 

 each measurement costs about 50 cents. The line is out there at 

 the present time so it is running the cost downward. Analyses of 

 this type makes buoys look very attractive from an economic point 

 of view. 



In conclusion, we can look forward to many buoys at sea. Many 

 of these will have conducting cable moorings and will utilize storage 

 and telemetry. Such systems have not been developed and are not 

 in operation at the present time; only these much less sophisticated. 



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