260 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



STATEMENT OF KEAR ADM. L. B. COATES, CHIEF OP NAVAL RE- 

 SEARCH; ACCOMPANIED BY DR. S. R. GALIER, DR. ARTHUR 

 MAXWELL, AND DR. EVELYN L. PRUITT 



Admiral Coates. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Vanik. Will you proceed, Admiral? The committee will be 

 pleased to have your testimony. 



Admiral Coates. Mr. Chairman, I have a brief statement that I 

 would like to read. 



Mr. Vanik. Do we have copies of your statement. Admiral ? 



Admiral Coates. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Chairman and gentlemen: I am grateful to have the oppor- 

 tunity to appear before you today to discuss the program of oceano- 

 graphic research being conducted by the Navy, and, in particular, 

 the program within the Office of Naval Eesearch. 



On Monday, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Wakelin gave the 

 committee an excellent review of the organization and coordination 

 of efforts in oceanography that exist throughout the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. Furthermore, he described the importance of the Navy's 

 overall program and how it fits in with the national oceanographic 

 program. Today, it is my intention to elaborate on some details of 

 the research portion of the Navy's oceanographic program. 



As you are aware, the marine sciences cut across many fields of 

 interest. This is well illustrated within the Office of Naval Eesearch. 

 Here, we have programs in oceanography, meteorology, hydrobiology, 

 acoustics, coastal geography, and Arctic research, to name but a few 

 which are concerned with problems of the sea. 



Our largest and most intimately concerned program, of course, is 

 the oceanography program. This program encompasses all phases 

 of oceanographic research and is carried out by contract at 11 major 

 oceanographic institutions and a dozen other organizations, includ- 

 ing universities, nonprofit institutions, and private industry. 



Because the scope of this program is so great, I will tell you only 

 of its broad objectives. They are — 



1. To describe the distribution of physical and chemical properties 

 of the ocean and to understand the dynamic processes which affect this 

 distribution. 



2. To determine the interrelationship of the ocean and atmosphere. 



3. To determine the distribution, kind, interrelationship, adaptation, 

 and life histories of the living population of the sea. 



4. To describe and to understand the evolution of the sea floor, in- 

 cluding its topography, nature and subsurface structure, with particu- 

 lar regard to the surrounding land masses. 



5. To determine if the oceans have been, or are being significantly 

 modified and how they can be exploited to benefit the Navy. 



From these objectives it is readily seen why so many other pro- 

 grams in the Office of Naval Eesearch contribute significantly to, and 

 in many cases actually are a part of, our oceanographic program. A 

 great deal of the meteorological research, for example, is directed to- 

 ward the study of exchange processes taking place at the air-sea inter- 

 face. The Navy must have a thorough understanding of these proc- 

 esses if we are to predict the acoustic conditions near the ocean surface 

 which affect sonar operations. Similarly, the knowledge is needed to 



