APPENDIX IV 
The National Oceanographic Program—A 
Perspective : 
The ocean has long had special significance to the people of the 
United States. Since colonial days we have both profited and suffered 
from our intimate relationship with the sea. Today, we face the sea 
along a general coastline of 12,500 miles. Our cities, villages, and 
farms have experienced the destructive forces of hurricanes and storm- 
generated waves. Our mariners have known the fury of troubled seas. 
Yet we have grown and prospered in many ways because of the sea. 
Quite early, our proximity to the ocean encouraged private enter- 
prise to develop and expand industries such as fishing and shipbuilding. 
Opportunities for trade stimulated the growth of a merchant 
marine, which eventually projected U.S. maritime power throughout 
the world. 
From the first days of the Republic, American industry looked to 
the Federal Government for protection and assistance in these en- 
deavors. Thus, among its early acts, the Congress established in 1790 
a seagoing Revenue Service (later the Coast Guard) to enforce U.S. 
laws at sea. In 1798, it authorized a navy, to defend our coasts and 
our ocean commerce, and a marine hospital service (later to become 
the Public Health Service) to provide medical care for merchant 
seamen. The Coast Survey (later the Coast and Geodetic Survey) 
was estabilshed in 1807 to improve navigation in coastal waters. As 
the Nation became more involved in the marine environment, the Fed- 
eral Government assumed additional responsibilities in the national 
interest: To dredge harbors and navigable channels (U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, 1824) ; to protect and improve the management 
of our fishery resources (Department of State, 1828; and the U.S. Fish 
Commission, 1871—later, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the 
Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife) ; to provide charting and 
1 Preface: National Oceanographic Program, fiscal year 1967, ICO Pamphlet 
No. 24, 1966. 
128 
