OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 323 



3-pound bluefisli at the end of it. It does things for people and I 

 believe eA^eryone should have this experience. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Mr. Swartz, I would like to commend you for a fine 

 presentation. I know my old Dad would be proud to hear the good 

 remarks you said about his bill. He was very proud of it. It was 

 one of the things I believe he worked the hardest for here in Congress. 

 He had to get a Presidential veto withdrawn and had a lot of other 

 difficulties. He took a great deal of pride in that bill. 



I would like to commend you and Mr. Paul for your fine presenta- 

 tion this morning and tell you how happy we are with the vigor we 

 see displayed in the Department. 



With that, I express my thanks to you and the thank of my col- 

 leagues. Mr. Bauer is recognized for the purpose of inserting in the 

 record certain communications. 



Mr. Bauer. I would like to insert certain communications we re- 

 ceived with respect to H.E. 4276 : One from Professor Banner of the 

 University of Hawaii, now in Thailand; one from Dr. Neushul of the 

 University of Washington ; and one from Dr. Wiggins, the director of 

 the natural history museum at Stanford University. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Without objection, it is so ordered. 



(The letters follow :) 



Chtjlalongkorn Laboratort, 

 Ang sua, Choliuri, Thailand, March 2^, 1961. 

 Mr. George P. Miller, 



Chairman, Subcommittee on Oceanography, Committee on Merchant Marine and 

 Fisheries, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 



Dear Mr. Miller: As a marine biologist and biological oceanographer for 20 

 years, and as a systematist working on marine animals for an even longer time, 

 I was most interested in your H.R. 4276, especially in section 9 which deals with 

 taxonomy of marine forms. 



The wliole bill appears to be excellent and well conceived. If It is passed it will 

 undoubtedly be of great stimulus to all of the marine sciences. 



However, I should like to discuss section 9 in particular. All of the biological 

 sciences rest firmly upon a foundation of taxonomy. No studies in physiology, 

 ecology, genetics, in applied fisheries, or in biological oceanography are valid 

 unless identification of the animals studied is exact. Yet today, the fields of 

 taxonomy and systematics are becoming more and more overlooked ; few national 

 grants are offered for taxonomic studies, few students are being trained in the 

 intricate and exacting disciplines, and even the journals cannot afford to print 

 papers of the lengths necessary in taxonomy. As a consequence, with this basis 

 growing weaker, all of biology grows weaker. 



May I cite one example of this neglect : The Mysidacea are a group of shrimp- 

 like planktonic and bottom-living organisms which I studied for about 10 years. 

 They are of great Importance in the seas, for they are food intermediates, and 

 their dense swarms are fed upon by many commercially important fish like the 

 salmon, the halibut, and the cod. It is likely that they could be also used as 

 "indicator organisms" to mark the origin, distribution, and fate of water masses 

 within the oceans, although that has never been studied. Yet, to my knowledge, 

 there are only several persons now living in the world who can identify these 

 organisms, and none in the United States. 



Your bill would remedy this situation and therefore it has my support. 

 Yours sincerely, 



Albert H. Banner, Ph.D., 

 Professor of Zoology and Director of Hawaii Marine Laboratory, Univer- 

 sity of Hawaii; on Leave. 



