206 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



We are thus brought to the crux of my remarks — the area of ocean engineering 

 and technology that deals \Yith the generalized problems and opportunities of 

 broad applicability that ocean science reveals. It is this area directly paralleling 

 and highly compatible with ocean science to which Scripps devotes its attention 

 and study and to which I will devote the remainder of my remarks. 



These technological aspects of broad implications could be categorized in many- 

 ways. I will, however, choose the following somewhat integrated and over- 

 lapping divisions for my discussion : 



I. Exploration ; 



II. Appraisal of the overall natural constraints, limits, and opportunities of 

 ocean use; 



III. Identification of general operational inadequacies and exploration of im- 

 proved approaches ; 



IV. Interdisciplinary ocean technology ; 



V. Technical learning from Nature's solutions to oceanic problems ; 



VI. Application of engineering and technical methodology and knowledge to 

 ocean science : and 



VII. Identification of human needs for and human constraints to ocean use. 

 In my discussion of the categories in this outline I will illustrate them with 



examples drawn from the general field, with an unavoidable emphasis on the 

 work at La Jolla, and I will also point out some of the deficiencies. 



I. EXPLOKATION 



Basic to man's apprehension of his world is open-eyed, unfettered, inquisitive 

 exploration. As essential to the science of the oceans as it is to its technology, 

 exi>loration has ever had great and sometimes surprising and unexpected impact 

 on man's utilization of the oceans. It is clear that Mathew Fontain Maury's 

 collation of winds and currents was of great benefit to navigation and transport, 

 but it is surprising to find that the geological exploration of the sea bottom has 

 carried an impact to fisheries. Geological exploration, in finding hitherto nn- 

 discovered seamounts, has delineated new fishing grounds that already are in 

 use. 



In a similar fashion, broad exploration and delineation of geologic structures, 

 the nature of ocean productivity, the distribution of plankton, currents, the 

 broader undersstanding of marine meteorology and ocean structure— all are basic 

 to the appraisal of man's practical opportunities in the sea, which I will discuss 

 below. Conspicuous among these, of course, are measurements leading to a 

 knowledge of the propagation of underwater sound in different regions of the 

 sea, nutrient level surveys, and zooplankton collections delineating regions of 

 high oceanic production, but even scientific discoveries of chemical difference in 

 sea water, such as the apparent deficiency of normal cesium in the South 

 Pacific, have important implications to the problems of worldwide fallout and 

 the sea disposal of nuclear waste. Methodological offshoots of scientific ex- 

 plorations have also been important. The development of seismic reflection and 

 refraction methods for marine geological exploration has been vital to offshore 

 petroleum discoveries and even to the utilization of undersea gold and diamond 

 placers around the world. 



New scientific tools and methods now exist or are now becoming available 

 that have not yet been applied to broad exploration for the fund of practical 

 knowledge that they are capable of apprehending. Conspicuous among these 

 underemployed tools and methods are the following : 



(a) Unmanned moored instrunievt platforms. — Instrument platforms can now 

 be routinely moored on the surface of the deep sea in depths exceeding .3,000 

 fathoms and survive for the greater part of a year. Broad-scale deplo.vment of 

 such platforms can reveal the nature of the aperiodic alternations of ocean and 

 weather conditions, which so profoundly influence our marine and terrestrial 

 activities. 



(&) Pelagic fish larvae surveys. — The identification and understanding of 

 pelagic fish larvae has been brought to a high level of development at the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries Laboratory at La .lolla under Dr. Ahlstrom. A world- 

 wide survey of fish larvae has immense possibilities. Immune to the vagaries 

 afflicting exploration for adults, the larval fishes are readily captured and present 

 an opportunity to appraise every major pelagic fish stock in the world both known 

 and as yet undiscovered. 



(c) Fish remains and microfossils in bottom sediments. — Totally comple- 

 mentary to the two foregoing, is a worldwide survey of fish remains and micro- 



