171 



of the Interior of tlie U.S. Government. Is there anything you want to 

 add to that, or do you feel that your description has been adequate ? 



IVliy don't we leave that for the moment ? You can review the record, 

 Dr. Cain, and if you feel you want to add anything to what you have 

 already stated with respect to the research projects you may do so. 



Would you describe now the range of commercial activities relating 

 to the ocean with which the Department of the Interior is concerned ? 



Dr. Cain. The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, of course, as the title 

 suggests, is directly related to our fishing industry. It is not always 

 of the same position that any given industry is because its concern is 

 not only with aiding industry by its efforts at exploration and discovery 

 of where stocks are and its work in the development of the technology 

 of catching and of handling and processing, marketing and so on, 

 which are Federal activities related to the benefit of the industry. 



It also has the central purpose of persuading, or through whatever 

 powers it has, of managing the harvest of resources so that they will be 

 conserved. And in this sense it means so that they will not be overfished 

 to the detriment of future fishing abilities. 



In other words, our central concern is with having sufficient knowl- 

 edge to know what kind of utilization of living resources of the sea 

 can be sustained year after year, granted the availability that occurs in 

 nature. This is the goal. 



This is also the goal of industries that have a long view of their 

 course. I am not suggesting that we are far apart in this. I am just 

 saying it always takes the broader consideration in this case of the 

 Government agency to keep things stabilized on a management basis. 



The Geological Survey produces basic information of value to in- 

 dustry because both on a broad scale and in places on a smaller scale 

 a more intensive study knowledge of the geological structure and its 

 features of a mineralogical character of these structures are of inter- 

 est to industry. 



The Bureau of Mines and the Geological Sui'vey have worked closely 

 together in recent years under Dr. Pecora, who heads the Geological 

 Survey, and Dr. Hibbard, who heads the Bureau of Mines. 



The JBureau of Mines is directly related to the mming industry, as 

 the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries is to the fishing industry. These 

 are the two Bureaus that come immediately to mind that have strong 

 direct ties to industry. 



In a different way, the Pollution Control Administration has a good 

 deal to say about operations, to see that water quality is not deterio- 

 rated by industrial or any other kinds of operations. 



The Office of Saline Water is of great interest to industry if under 

 certain circumstances sufficiently economic fresh water can be pro- 

 vided where it doesn't now exist. In this sense of industry these are 

 the primary agencies. 



Mr. Fascell. It seems to me, if I might digress for a moment, that 

 I read somewhere just recently that the cost of production of desalted 

 water had gotten down to a fantastically low amount, less than 75 cents 

 a thousand gallons. We thought it would take 10 years to lower the 

 cost, yet it is now do^yn to a matter of cents for a thousand gallons. 



In your opinion. Dr. Cain, if the proposal advanced by Malta were 

 adopted, what would be its impact on the activities, both "scientific and 



84-771—67 13 



