SEA GRANT COLLEGES 139 



STATEMENT OF DR. RICHARD J. BENOIT, MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE 

 BOARD, SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND MARINE SCIENCES ASSOCI- 

 ATION 



Dr. Benoit. The National Sea Grant College and Program Act of 

 1965 has been stated to be in tha public interest by many fine men who 

 have been before this committee and I hasten to add my endorsement 

 to that statement. The committee is no doubt thoroughly familiar 

 with the proceedings of the recent Sea Grant Colleges Conference at 

 Newport, R.L, cosponsored by the University of Rhode Island and 

 Southern New England Marine Sciences Association. So there is no 

 need for me to review the ideas presented there. Dr. Spilhaus' key- 

 note address at that conference has been read into the Congressional 

 Record, as you know. I would also call or recall your attention to the 

 1964 National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council report, 

 "Economic Benefits From Oceanographic Research."* That document 

 states the case far better than I might with regard to the ways in which 

 the public welfare will be benefited. The sea grant colleges program 

 seems to me to be the proper educational foundation for the Fedei^al 

 program we can all see evolving. 



Working in industry' I am prol)ably more accustomed to jastifjang 

 proposed course of action on an economic basis than are my university 

 colleagues. I do not, however, think we are in this instance dealing 

 with a system that can be subjected to economic analysis except by 

 making many cumbersome assumptions, all subject to challenge. I 

 think we must rely confidently on the example afforded by the history 

 of the land-grant college program. 



Let me state parenthetically that I feel strongly that the sea grant 

 program would be weakened by any attempt to provide means for full 

 and direct participation by States that are not marine coastal or Great 

 Lakes States. The available resources miglit be diluted to the extent 

 that any single State's activity would be ineffectual. My own per- 

 sonal suggestion for broadening the geographical basis for partici- 

 pation would be to provide appointments to sea grant institutions by 

 Congressmen from States with no sea grant college, in the same gen- 

 eral way as appointments are made to the Federal Service Academies, 

 of which one, tlie Coast Guard Academy at New London, is a valued 

 landmark of my home State, Connecticut. 



In my student days, I worked at the Connecticut Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station in New Haven. I found the atmosphere there to 

 be ideal for productive research. The station worked in contact with 

 industry in the development of agricultural chemicals and equipment, 

 with farmers on the application of new knowledge, and with the scien- 

 tific and academic community at large in the interchange of new 

 knowledge. That partnership assures the prompt application and 

 exploitation of the fruits of research. The sea grant colle<2,e program 

 can, I am confident, assure the same success in the seas that we now 

 enjoy on the land. The committee should, I feel, consider amend- 

 ments and establish administrative or policy machinery that will pro- 

 mote the participation of industry in the program. 



Senator Pell. I am not sure I would go along with your thought 

 on congressional appointments to those institutes that get grants be- 

 cause, being in that position myself, I see how very difficult it is in 



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