operation commitment for its expected life. Operating expenses are 
then funded separately from the cost of, for example, oceanography 
for which the ship is used. The same comprehensive budgeting sys- 
tem should be used for oceanographic ships. Funding need not be 
through a single agency at this time. The Navy should agree to sup- 
port some ships by block-funding. Others could be funded as they are 
now by the National Science Foundation, and we recommend support 
by a line item in the budget of the new environmental agency which is 
recommended in this section. 
Central block-funding will permit effective planning on use of 
oceanographic ships. It will not, however, solve the problem of 
equitable distribution of ship time to all qualified scientists regardless 
of affiliations nor eliminate the problem of ship operations at small 
oceanographic laboratories. These problems should be dealt with by 
formation of ship-user groups with joint responsibilities and pri- 
vileges. Such user groups already exist on an informal basis, because 
the larger oceanographic laboratories tend to regard themselves as na- 
tional facilities. Occasionally these laboratories have assigned ship 
time to scientists from other institutions simply because they had good 
projects and had no other way to get a ship. Some laboratories have 
even shown willingness to form user groups with neighboring uni- 
versities and assign equal priority to all applications for ship time 
from group members. Thus, there is every indication that laboratories 
are willing to share ship time, yet numerous scientists from nonoceano- 
graphic institutions cannot go to sea. This seems to reflect inadequate 
communication and indicates the need for a more formal organiza- 
tion of potential ship users. 
The problems of small laboratories with excess ship capacity of some 
types and not enough capacity of others can also be solved by forming 
user groups. A small laboratory has difficulty in using a single, 
usually large, ship effectively. On the other hand, several laboratories 
and a group of associated universities would form an efficient user 
group. The group could perhaps consolidate ship-support operations 
at one large shore facility, thereby reducing costs. The group would 
also have several ships of different sizes and capabilities and could 
assign the most effective one for a particular project. 
Therefore, we recommend that in general oceanographic ships be 
grouped into reasonable sized, regional fleets; perhaps three or four 
(fleets) would serve the Nation’s needs. The fleets should be assigned 
to independent, regional organizations representing user groups of 
oceanographic laboratories and universities. The organizations should 
be comparable to the user groups which exist in high energy physics. 
Every effort should be made to include in the user group those institu- 
tions which at present do not have formal activity in ocean science 
and technology. 
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