SEA GRANT COLLEGES 259 



In the United States todaj^ there is an emerging awareness on the 

 part of the public, the academic world, the Congress, and the industrial 

 community that the oceans represent a vast untapped resource. This 

 emerging awareness is greeted by an entliusiastic community of scien- 

 tists and ocean technologists eager to move into a concentrated cam- 

 paign to promote full utilization of the sea around us. 



This Nation stands at the threshold of man's final conquest of his 

 environment. Man in the ocean, or man on the high seas, is as im- 

 portant to our Nation's future as man in space, or man on the moon. 

 The sea grant college is a giant step toward seeing that the first place 

 in ocean technology stays in American hands. 



Senator Pell. Thank you. Congressman. At this point, since we 

 are through listening to the witnesses we have invited, I would like to 

 make the announcement that the record will stay open until May 12 for 

 any further testimony or changes that are offered, and after that time 

 it is the intention of the subcommittee to meet in executive session to 

 go over the various amendments that are being offered and see what 

 our combined thinking is in this regard. 



I thank the witnesses who have come from long distances, and if 

 there is anybody else in the audience here with a supplemental review 

 to offer, I will be glad to hear it. Otherwise, the meeetings of this 

 subcommittee are herewith recessed. 



(The following material was subsequently supplied for the record.) 



U.S. De:partment OF THE Interior, 



Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 



Washington, D.C. May 10, 1966. 

 Hon. Claiborne Pell, 



Chairman, Special Subcommittee on Sea Grant Colleges, Committee on Labor and 

 Public Welfare, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 

 Dear Senator Pell : At the hearing on S. 2439, held May 3, 1966, there was 

 some mention of the origin of the present Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. I 

 have had prepared an organizational chronology which traces the Bureau back 

 to the original act of February 9, 1871, and am enclosing it for the record. 

 Sincerely yours, 



Donald L. McKernan, Director. 



Organizational Chronology of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



Fish were an extremely important source of food in the early days of the Repub- 

 lic and for that reason the fisheries received early attention from the Congress 

 as a renewable resource. By the act of February 9, 1871, the Congress recognized 

 the national aspect in the conservation of fisheries by authorizing appointment 

 of a Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries to study the decrease of the food fishes 

 of the seacoasts and lakes of the United States, and to suggest remedial measures. 

 The Commissioner was to be appointed by the President, with the advice and con- 

 sent of the Senate, from among the civil officers or employees of the Government 

 and was to serve without additional salary (16 Stat. r>94). The sum of $5,000 

 was appropriated to carry out the required study (16 Stat. .503) . 



The probem of depletion of the fisheries had been called to the attention of 

 the Congress in January 1871 by Mr. Spencer F. Baird, who was then Assistant 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The work authorized under the 

 original act was done by personnel of the Smithsonian Institution who served 

 without additional compensation. Thereafter, on .January 20, 1888, the original 

 act was amended to authorize a salary of $."),000 per year for the Commissioner 

 and to require that he not hold any other office or employment (2.5 Stat. 1 ). 



The Fish Commission and the Office of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries 

 functioned as an independent establishment of the Govermnent from February 9, 

 1871, to July 1, 1903, when, by the ii<t of February 14, 1903 (32 Stat. 827), the 



