258 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



Mr. Ellsworth, do you have any questions of the Admiral? 



Mr. Ellsworth. No, thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Vanik. Mr. Morse, do you have any questions of the Admiral ? 



Mr. Morse. Yes, Mr. Chairman. 



Admiral Stephan, in your statement, which I have read, I notice 

 on the third page you identify the problem in the processing of marine 

 biological and marine geological data : 



Methods for processing marine biological and marine geological data are 

 currently under investigation. These data are generally reported in qualitative 

 terms and are difficult to reduce to terms for machine processing. The NODC 

 expects to begin processing of these data late in fiscal year 1962 or early in 

 fiscal year 1963. 



What kinds of things? This is not an insurmountable problem, 

 T would hope. 



Admiral Stephan. I do not think it is an insurmountable problem, 

 but in the past we have been collecting biological data through towed 

 nets. These do not lend themselves to the same type of electronic read- 

 out that such chemical or physical qualities as temperature or salinity 

 or depth to the bottom or the shape of the ocean floor would do. 



I think, as we take this problem to industry, they have coped with 

 similar and more difficult problems. I think the important thing is 

 that we take this problem to the very able instrumentation industry 

 of this country. I think they will devise ways of simplifying this 

 and making it a more rapid process and still an accurate one. 



Mr. Morse. Has that not been accomplished yet, Admiral? Have 

 you had any discussions with, let us say. Systems Development Corp. 

 or any of these people who are in this business of information 

 processing? 



Admiral Stephan, We have had discussions with them, Mr. Morse, 

 but at this conference with industry in August we plan for the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries, which are thoroughly familiar with this 

 problem, to discuss and lay the whole problem in all of its variations 

 as best they can before industry. 



I am sure they have had consultations with them before, but we 

 intend to put the whole package together for industry, if we can, 

 because I think it is important that the Navy, for instance, collect 

 biological information to the greatest extent that it can for two 

 reasons. 



First of all, it is important to the Navy, and second, it assists the 

 whole Government in getting a job done. It would be very wasteful 

 if we failed to collect biological information that we could collect. 

 We should not be limited by our immediate concern. We should be 

 limited by what is an efficient data collection package to put aboard 

 a ship. How much can you do without terribly running up the cost, 

 or something like that. And I think it is very important that we try 

 to collect all the data that we can in order to avoid the big expense 

 of having to plow the ocean again to collect some data that we could 

 have collected in the first place. 



Mr. Morse. You said in your response to Mr. Vanik's question that 

 you agree in principle with the bill. Do you honestly feel that a 

 council of this kind can accomplish the needs in the oceanographic 

 area, rather than an agency in the usual structure could accomplish ? 



