OCEANOGRAPHY 1961— PHASE 3 277" 



Mr. Bauer. Last year, in the testimony before this committee, Ad- 

 miral Hay ward pointed out that during the IGY tliere was a ques- 

 tion of the oxygen vahies being consistent between you and your 

 British confreres in the surveys in the North Atlantic, and he pointed 

 out that even occupying the same stations, the same oxygens, as de- 

 termined by Woods Hole and by the British, at the same depth, at 

 the same time, were out by 5 percent one from the other. And Ad- 

 miral Hayward further went on to say that it was time that standard- 

 ization of the determination of oxygen was established. 



Do you feel that way ? 



Dr. Fye. In the interest of time I omitted that particular point 

 from the I'eading of my statement. The entire statement, I hope,, 

 will be in the record. 



As I indicated in the statement, we at Woods Hole have taken the 

 lead in attempting to correct this difference. But this is not a differ- 

 ence of primary standards. In determining the oxygen content of sea 

 water you use, as all chemists use, the primary standards of chemistry. 

 This was a difference in the real technique used in analysis. In order 

 to solve this technique, it was quite necessary to do research in the 

 basic chemical processes which were involved in the analytical tech- 

 niques. It was not a matter of difference of standands. 



We now believe that this difference is in great part understood, and 

 the differences more closely resolved. They are not eliminated. 



Mr. Bauer. I have not thought of the method of measuring oxygen, 

 for years, but I thought Winkler's method had been in existence for 

 years. Does that mean that all of our oxygen values all over the 

 world are apt to be out ? 



Dr. Fye. There are special difficulties in determining oxygen in 

 sea water and particularly in the collecting of sea water; and, as is 

 necessary on almost all research ships because of their size, to trans- 

 port this water, sometimes after a long period, back to the laboratory 

 for analysis. There is exchange with gases of the atmosphere, and 

 there is the problem of interference of the other multiple and very 

 complex constituents of sea water interacting in a very complicated 

 way with the oxyg&n content of the water itself. 



Mr. Vanik. Doctor, we certainly appreciate your testimony this 

 morning, and we would like to go on further, but in the interests of 

 time, we must proceed. 



Our next witness is Dr. Spilhaus. 



Doctor, do you have copies of your statement ? 



STATEMENT OF DR. ATHELSTAK SPILHAUS, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 



Dr. Spilhaus. I have no prepared statement, Mr. Chairman. _ In 

 the interests of your time schedule I will touch briefly on a few points. 



Mr. Vanik. We will be pleased to have your testimony. 



You may proceed. Doctor. 



Dr. Spilhaus. I am Athelstan Spilhaus, from Minnesota. Mr. 

 Chainnan, I am delighted to see that the Eepresentatives here on this 

 committee are from Ohio and Kansas, about as far from the sea as 

 I am. 



6S965— 61 10 



