148 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



The Committee as organized initially consisted of members from 

 the Department of Defense, represented by the Navy; the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce, represented by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey ; the Department of the Interior, represented by the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries; the Department of Health, Education, and 

 Welfare, represented by its Office of Education ; the National Science 

 Foundation, and the Atomic Energy Commission. Also the Com- 

 mittee includes assigned observers from the National Academy of 

 Sciences Committee on Oceanography and the Bureau of the Budget. 

 On November 29, 1960, the Treasury Department, in recog-nition of 

 the U.S. Coast Guard's knowledge and continuing interests, its capa- 

 bilities and potential in the oceanographic field, was also invited to 

 become a permanent member of the Cormnittee. 



The national program, which President Kennedy presented to Con- 

 gress on March 29, 1961, has as its basis the report of the National 

 Academy of Sciences Committee on Oceanography, program plan- 

 ning by the Interagency Committee, and subsequent reviews by repre- 

 sentatives of the National Academy of Sciences and by an ad hoc 

 panel of the President's Science Advisory Committee. This repre- 

 sents a vigorous expansion of the Nation's efforts in oceanography; 

 the program level of $97.6 million is an increase of $44.5 million or 

 about 81 percent over fiscal year 1961. 



The committee's approach to the development of the national pro- 

 gram has been to consider general functional areas which are impor- 

 tant to the growth in oceanography and common to participating 

 agencies. During the past year the following functional areas were 

 studied in detail: Research, ship construction, ocean surveys, facili- 

 ties, data center, and education and training. The committee or- 

 ganized working panels of competent personnel from participating 

 agencies and, indeed, from many other activities which we considered 

 would make a significant contribution to our deliberations. An obvi- 

 ous, but most significant result of our organization has been an inter- 

 change of ideas and a recognition by each of us of the other's prob- 

 lems and programs. Our close working relationship has, by itself, 

 encouraged increased coordination and cooperation which has ex- 

 isted between agencies performing work of mutual interest. A cur- 

 rent example is the planning underway in the Hawaiian area whereby 

 units of the Pacific Fleet will assist the Honolulu Biological Labora- 

 tory of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in the acquisition of 

 data. Also worthy of note is the manner in which the Coast Guard 

 is supporting the oceanographic program. In my letter written to 

 this committee in support of Congressman Miller's bill regarding 

 expansion of Coast Guard functions, I described the instructions by 

 the commandant in relation to the 1961 Bering Sea patrol starting this 

 May. You will recall that these instructions state that in addition to 

 the routine hydrographic observations, the 1961 patrol will mark 

 the first patrol wherein specific periods will be allotted to the scien- 

 tific program in cooperation with other agencies. 



The National Oceanographic Data Center dedicated on January 

 16, 1961, was established through the efforts of the Interagency Com- 

 mittee on Oceanography. The purpose of this Center is to provide to 

 the scientific community a national operating agency which will fa- 

 cilitate the accumulation, processing, and retrieval of oceanographic 



