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centers designed to meet the critical needs of a unique area of our 

 human habitat. They should provide at least in part the means for 

 assaulting- some very critical practical problems, and here perhaps we 

 could see the first requirement of the research program of the coastal 

 zone laboratory. 



It should be, I think, primarily a research center with a mission 

 and a purpose. The researches in these centers must help us to accom- 

 plish certain objectives in the coastal zone, must help us correct certain 

 situations that we have created unwisely, then provide us, most 

 importantly, with a reasonably sound basis for deciding whether to 

 do or not to do certain things in this area. 



In short, the majority of the researches of these centers should be 

 directed toward solutions of special problems. I would prefer to 

 characterize this, if we need to characterize it at all, as mission- 

 oriented research rather than applied or basic, but the tag or title is 

 not important. It is getting on w^ith the job. 



I think in the main these research centers should be university 

 related, because of the nature of the research program, but the key 

 ingredients of success in this activity will in this activity, as in most 

 others, come down to the problem of getting the right people in the 

 right places with the right facilities and money to accomplish their 

 purpose. 



It has been made abundantly clear that the larger part of the specific 

 subject we are talking about is far more important than we realized, 

 say, 5 years ago or 10 years ago, and probably more important than 

 we are capable of realizing even now. 



It is far more important than any single discipline on which the 

 work will be based. What we are planning for is the environment of 

 the future, and the future of the environment. 



We must begin to plan what we will do on the good earth, which 

 is still the most important planet in the universe, at least to the human 

 race. This is the point where the land meets the sea, where both the 

 land and the sea meet the air, and where we must live with all three 

 phases, solid, liquid, and gaseous. 



Our hosts in these panel sessions are our Congressmen, who must 

 bear the difficult burden of pleasing most of the people nearly all the 

 time. I am sure you will agree that this is a very difficult job. 



We have been invited here to shed some light on the kinds of re- 

 search work required if we are to use and preserve our coastal environ- 

 ment, and this might be of some assistance to our Congressmen, who 

 must adjust these concepts and construct them into language which 

 will eventually become law. 



In this context, then, I would like to ask each of the panelists and 

 each of the discussion members and questioners to follow, to comment 

 briefly on what I expect to be a difficult concept to reduce eventually 

 into concise language and law; namely, the criteria that should be 

 considered when establishing coastal zone laboratories and their re- 

 search programs. 



I think "this concept is very important, especially in the planning 

 stages, and I think we should keep in mind the eventual purpose of 

 these discussions. 



Our panelists on this panel are well known to most of you, but let 

 me introduce them and their topics to you. 



