78 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



Traditionally, the strategy of the United States with respect to the high 

 seas has been mainly concerned with the freedom of our maritime commerce 

 and the operation of our naval fleets. For purposes of defense the United States 

 must maintain control of vast portions of the sea. It must be able to use this 

 broad highway to other lands, and to interdict hostile craft from those portions 

 of the sea adjacent to the United States or adjacent to other nations for whose 

 defense we carry the responsibility. Because of the importance to our com- 

 merce and our defense, the United States has always been willing to maintain 

 the necessary control of the sea by nailitary action if necessary. 



This still applies, and will continue to apply. However, in the modern 

 world, the direct application of military force is becoming more and more dif- 

 ficult and less and less fruitful. Control of the sea by other means is of in- 

 creasingly greater importance. Other thanmilitary force, the important element 

 of control of the sea is its use. The main ways in which nations have used the 

 high seas in the past are for marine transportation and for fisheries. The exis- 

 tence of large merchant fleets and distant water fishing fleets flying a nation's 

 flag has been an important element of its sea power. This is still the case. Un- 

 fortunately, our merchant fleet dwindles and our fishing fleets are decadent, 

 while the fleets of other nations, including the Soviet, flourish. Merchant ves- 

 sels and fishing vessels of the Soviet are based near an uncomfortably large 

 share of the strategically important straits and passages connecting the differ- 

 ent parts of the World Ocean. It would seem important to reverse this trend. 

 A program of vigorous expansion of our commercial and fishing fleets, which 

 should be capable of accomplishment through the application of our superior 

 technology, seems appropriate. Likewise, the exploitation of other resources of 

 the high seas, and most particularly the minerals of the sea bottom, will be an 

 important element of the use of the sea whereby we maintain a modicum of con- 

 trol. The ultimate element of peaceful control is, of course, occupation. The 

 nation whose people actually live on, and continuously draw their sustenance 

 from, an area of this planet usually winds up controlling or owning this area, 

 while the non-resident exploiter cannot stand up against these people. For ex- 

 ample, the Spanish Crown could not hold its New World claims, because they 

 were essentially based on the extraction and export of treasure, rather than full 

 occupation and use. Similarly, the cattlemen could not hold the open range of 

 our Great Plains against the settlers who occupied and farmed it. Who first 

 learns to live in and occupy portions of the sea will have the highest probability 

 of controlling them. We should, therefore, push vigorously toward this capa- 

 bility. 



THE NEED FOR THE COLLEGE OF THE SEA 



Fulfillment of our destiny in the ocean requires a great deal more than the 

 application of science and technology. This strange and unfamiliar milieu, the 

 sea, presents problems of economics, sociology, law and philosophy to which 

 old solutions and old traditions imperfectly apply. New institutions, and new 

 ways of thought, require development. Our entry into this new realm requires 

 the integration of many disciplines in both the sciences and humanities. We need 

 to have scholars working closely together in the hard sciences such as physics, 

 chemistry, biology, and mathematics; in the soft sciences, such as sociology and 

 economics; in engineering; in law; and others. There is an obvious need for the 

 college of the sea to bringtogether men of all these disciplines to carry out their 

 scholarly pursuits, research and education in relation to the ocean. The ques- 

 tion is, how can this be accomplished? Some attempts are being made to accom- 

 modate this need by the establishment of institutes in which faculty and research 

 members of different departments of a large university can work together on the 

 problems of the ocean. For example, my own Institute of Marine Resources of 

 the University of California is a university-wide institute established to be a 

 focal point for the interest and action of men in different departments, and from 

 the various campuses, who are concerned with marine resources, to foster 



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