152 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



to sustain the growth of the national oceanographic program. I 

 suggest that it is in this latter area, that of exploring the needs of 

 educational institutions for this purpose and determining methods to 

 provide for substantial expansion of educational facilities, that this 

 committee could provide a significant contribution to the advancement 

 of the oceanographic program outlined by the President. 



In his message to Congress on February 23, President Kennedy 

 described our problems and needs in natural resources, as follows: 



The sea around us represents one of our most important but least understood 

 and almost wholly underveloped areas for extending our resource base. 



Its importance to our military and economic well-being has been well 

 and fully documented. The vast ocean areas are possibly the last 

 frontiers on the globe which are not under control of a single sovereign 

 authority. In a sense, the nations of the world striving for increased 

 knowledge of the oceans are engaged in competitive free enterprise, 

 with economic benefits and increased security accruing to those nations 

 most rapidly gaining an understanding of the basic ocean processes 

 and most effectively directing these processes to practical applications. 

 It is our purpose within the Interagency Committee on Oceanography 

 to provide the required national leadership to spur a continuing and 

 orderly growth of such oceanographic activity within our country 

 in order to meet our own requirements and those of the other nations 

 of the free world, 



Mr. Chairm.an, I have for you and for Mr. Bonner copies of the 

 TENOC report which I would like to submit for your study and for 

 your reference. 



Mr. Miller. Thank you very much. We shall be very happy to 

 receive that. 



Mr. Secretary, I congratulate you on a very fine statement. I con- 

 gratulate you as Chairman of the Interagency Committee for the 

 outstanding job which has been done in coordination and for the coop- 

 eration you have succeeded in obtaining among Government agencies 

 with divergent and sometimes almost opposing interests. It is be- 

 cause of this important subject, as I told you a while ago, that this 

 committee is concerned with perpetuating the work of the Interagency 

 Committee. While we have an administration which is sympathetic 

 to oceanography, while there is noAv a great drive on the part of the 

 Navy for a Imowledge of the sea or certain phases of oceanography, 

 and I can foresee continued interest in this subject, we know there is 

 competition for dollars and, as the Navy's interest in this begins to 

 lessen because it will have acquired the basic data it needs, what agency 

 in Government will spend the money or take the initiative in preserv- 

 ing this Interagency Committee? The matter of the biology of the 

 ocean in the long run is as important as the physics of the ocean. Yet 

 I think you in the Navy are primarily concerned with the physical 

 aspects of the ocean. 



It is for that reason I have introduced the bill which is before us, 

 to try to freeze into law while this is a popular and knowledgeable 

 subject, the work that you have so well done in bringing together the 

 Interagency Committee. 



I want you and the members of your Committee to know that this is 

 the basic reason this bill was introduced. I have nothing but the 



