250 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



coming from rather archaic instrumentation. It is obvious that mod- 

 ern instrumentation is required to collect data which is valid because 

 of proper calibration and which can be rapidly processed by facili- 

 ties at the Data Center. 



Establishment of the Interagency Committee on Oceanography,. 

 Panel on Facilities, Equipment, and Instrumentation resulted m a 

 careful study of the oceanographic instrumentation problem in the 

 light of the participating agencies' specified instrument requirements 

 and the need for instrument calibration and standardization. 



Also resulting from the Panel meetings was the agreement between 

 the Hydrographic Office and the ICO Panel that an early meeting 

 with industry was required to present the first phase of the require- 

 ments for survey and research instrumentation. The briefing for in- 

 dustry has been set for mid-August 1961. It is felt that the $1.5 

 million planned by Navy for the instrument program in fiscal year 

 1962 as well as succeeding year appropriations will be more effec- 

 tively expended as the result of the meeting with industry. 



Mr. Chairman, that concludes my prepared statement. I would be 

 delighted to try to answer any questions. 



Mr. Vanik. Admiral, the committee certainly appreciates your very 

 able presentation of the work of your organization. 



Going specifically to the bill, H.R. 4276, what is your position with 

 respect to this legislation, and the establishment of the policy set forth 

 in the bill? 



Admiral Stephan. Mr. Chairman, my position is strongly in line 

 with the position expressed in the letter to Mr. Bonner, the chairman 

 of the committee, in which we state that we strongly support the 

 objectives of the bill. 



The question as to whether these agencies should be set up by law 

 or by Executive order is a difficult one. I do not feel competent 

 to advise on that basic question between the executive branch and the 

 legislative branch. I do feel that this oceanographic program is very 

 complicated, and it will need strong coordination and strong leader- 

 ship, and anything that will enhance this leadership I think is 

 desirable. 



Mr. Drewry. Admiral Stephan, in connection with a survey, as 

 perhaps contrasted with research, what is your position, or what are 

 your views, with regard to the advantages, if any, of instrumenting 

 American merchant vessels which ply over regular trade routes on 

 regular services, from the standpoint of keeping abreast of the de- 

 velopments, and so on, in various parts of the oceans of the world in 

 which those vessels travel ? 



Admiral Stephaist. Mr. Drewry, I believe that if we are going to 

 collect the data, the vast amount of data, that is required to furnish 

 to our scientific community the basic facts from which they must de- 

 rive the knowledge from which we will develop the operational con- 

 cepts and hardware to exploit that knowledge, we must use every 

 facility that we can to collect data. 



I think some of this data has to be collected by survey ships that 

 have no other job than oceanographic survey. I think some of this 

 data can and should be collected by what I like to call ships of oppor- 

 tunity, such as vessels of the fleet and of the merchant fleet. 



