penditures on oceanography related to maritime improvements is prob- 
ably of dubious value. At a minimum, any marked expansion would 
not seem wise, and very careful consideration should be given to some 
contraction. This program probably should be confined to activities 
aimed at port improvement, elimination of fouling and boring and any 
portion that might be related (in a byproduct sense) to defense. Re- 
search on containerization, hydrofoils and bubble ships suggested or 
sponsored by the Maritime Administration would seem to have more 
promise. 
A potential bottleneck in the oceanographic program might be avail- 
ability of research talent, although the expected increase in manpower 
in oceanography suggests this will not be a limitation (see sec. 9). 
Relationships between research and basic research expenditures in that 
program are therefore of interest; these are summarized in table 7.3 
as they appear at present and in the recent past. Research might be 
defined, of course, in several ways: Broadly to include nonacademic 
as well as academic activities; with or without ship-operating costs 
included and inclusive or exclusive of different classes of engineering 
development. By the usual definitions, column (d) in table 7.3 seems 
to be the best estimate of basic research in the national oceanographic 
program, defined as expenditure for research in academic laboratories 
or in other laboratories organized in a similar manner. The figures are 
admittedly quite crude or approximate. (If one seeks estimates with 
ship-operating costs included, column (e) should be scaled up by about 
50 percent.) It is interesting that the proportion of the total oceano- 
graphic program devoted to “basic research” in recent years is not too 
dissimilar (though slightly higher on average) to the roughly equiva- 
lent figures for other Government science programs, both before and 
after adjustment for ships or similar heavy hardware in other fields. 
At present approximately $14 to $15 million (exclusive of ship- 
operating costs) is spent on basic research as part of the nondefense 
national oceanographic program. This implies that basic research is 
about 12 percent of the total expenditure of $120 million on non- 
defense missions. If this outlay of $14 to $15 million is expanded 
at a rate of 15 percent per year over the next 4 or 5 years, expendi- 
tures on basic research to support the nondefense national oceano- 
graphic programs would rise to a level of about $25 million (exclusive 
of ship-operating costs) by 1971. If the basic research component con- 
tinues to be 12 percent. of the total mission expenditure, this would 
imply an increase from $120 to $210 million per year in the total 
in a period of 5 years. Such an increase should provide sufficient 
scope for most justifiable programs now foreseeable in the nondefense 
sector. (The “sufficiency” will depend to some extent on the level 
of defense expenditures undertaken.) Presumably, most of the $25 
million spent for basic research in 1971 on nondefense purposes would 
62 
