OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 311 



The Department of the Interior's Advisory Committee on Fish and 

 Wildlife made the following recommendation to the Secretary of the 

 Interior on October 20, 1959 : 



The 10-year oceanographic research program of the National Academy of 

 Sciences is a vitally important undertaking which the committee supports. The 

 committee is hopeful that greater emphasis will be given to the basic biological 

 aspects, especially of the fishes. A preponderance of effort is now proposed on 

 physical oceanography. We believe that added emphasis on biological research 

 would strengthen the program and greatly increase its overall value. 



In an attempt to meet some of these pressing problems, the Bureau 

 of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife commenced in 1960 a modest program 

 of research on marine game fishes. This program includes the 

 following : 



1. A pilot study of the Shrewsbury River estuary. This will be 

 expanded as funds permit to include larger geographical areas. 



2. A compendium of marine game fish know^iedge. This will point 

 out the gaps and direct future research. 



3. A national survey to determine the game fish catch, and species 

 of importance by regions. This will provide essential economic in- 

 formation and also guide future research. 



4. We have begun a program of grants and fellowships to students 

 just within the last few weeks. 



I am attaching a copy of a recent paper for the use of the committee. 

 I would like to emphasize that an important part of the marine game 

 fish research activity will be graduate studies sponsored and financed 

 by the Bureau. This program has two "purposes : one, to stimulate 

 the recruitment of marine biologists to the field of fishery research, 

 and two, to fill in the gaps on marine game fish problems. Students 

 will be encouraged to undertake problems which ma,y be inte- 

 grated with larger investigational programs of the Bureau. 

 Selection of students will be by the university rather than by the 

 Bureau. At present this program is underway on a very modest scale 

 with two student assistants. One is engaged in a study of the life 

 history of channel bass at the University of Miami, the other is en- 

 gaged in an analysis of temperature, salinity and other features of 

 the physical environment of the Caribbean Sea. He is working under 

 the direction of Dr. Wust at Columbia University. This study 

 promises to result in an important contribution to understanding the 

 Gulf Stream. 



This is the new program of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wild- 

 life. As you are well aware, the m.ajor portion of the oceanographic 

 work is carried on by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. Without 

 going into detail this Bureau's plans for 1962 include the following 

 new oceanographic projects : 



African expedition $300. 000 



Data center 100, 000 



Graduate fellowships and trainees 200, 000 



Estuarine research 200, 000 



Taxonomic research 25, 000 



Eastern Pacific oceanography 175, 000 



Total 1, 000, 000 



The Department of the Interior is probably more directly concerned 

 with the biological phases of the oceanographic program than any 

 other department of the Federal Government. Secretary Udall is 



