SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



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THE NATIONAL SEA-GRANT COLLEGE & PROGRAM ACT OF 1965 



Senator Claiborne Pell, M.A., Columbia University. A native of New- 

 port, Rhode Island, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1960. 

 He served in the Coast Guard during World War II and is presently a 

 Captain in the USCGR. He has taken an active interest in maritime 

 affairs and in oceanography, and has worked on the concept of legis- 

 lation to establish an educational program aimed at making maximum 

 beneficial use of our country's marine resources. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 



I am delighted to have this opportunity of sharing in this national confer- 

 ence to develop plans and ideas for implementing the concept of sea-grant 

 colleges. 



Under the sponsorship of the University of Rhode Island and the Southern 

 New England Marine Sciences Association, this conference is of great meaning 

 to our own State and to the goals we seek for advancing.in the best possible 

 fashion, our knowledge of oceanography and education in the marine sciences. 

 Such increasing knowledge and education can bring highly important benefits to 

 Rhode Island and to the United States in the years ahead. 



I am particularly delighted to participate in this conference with so many 

 leaders distinguished in the broad area of oceanography. Dr. Horn, as Presi- 

 dent of the University, and Dean Knauss, as head of its Graduate School of Oce- 

 anography, have brought the University of Rhode Island to a position of not only 

 state but national prominence. I have long admired the imaginative and pioneer- 

 ing programs established at URI. And it is also a singular pleasure for me to 

 share in this conference with Dr. Athelstan Spilhaus, Dean of the Institute of 

 Technology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Spilhaus is a pioneer of the sea- 

 grant college concept- -which I have sought as a Senator to implement within the 

 framework of new legislation. 



As you may know, I have recently introduced in the Senate proposals for 

 national sea- grant colleges and for a program of education ainaed at making 

 maximum use of our country's marine resources. They are an asset which we 

 have only begun to explore. The legislation, I believe, can be of benefit to this 

 University, to Rhode Islanders, and to our country as a whole. 



Rhode Island has had a long and historic association with the sea. Eighty- 

 eight years ago, Alexander Agassiz--a resident of this very city of Newport- - 

 organized the three cruises of the Coast Guard vessel, BLAKE. These voyages 

 marked the first major effort of the United States in oceanographic exploration. 

 Until the end of the last century, the Alexander Agassiz laboratory in Newport- - 

 stemming from a concept originated by his father, Louis,- -was our nation's 

 historic center of early research into the mysteries of the marine environment. 



Thus Rhode Island can lay rightful claim to the beginnings of oceanographic 

 studies which this University has so well expanded. History combines fittingly 

 in this respect with continuing and improving purpose. A great deal more needs 

 to be done, however, if we are to make full use of our potentials and develop the 

 skills and understandings we will need for the future. 



The oceans and their deeps constitute a last physical frontier here on earth 

 which man has by no means fully investigated. 



Until recent times, as President Johnson has pointed out, the oceans have 

 been looked upon chiefly as "barriers to invasion." "We must now see them as 



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