MARINE SCIENCE 41 
the south, around the offshore islands in this area (Revillagigedos, Clipperton, 
Cocos, and Galapagos), and to distances 500 miles or more off the coast. Several 
vessels (presently five but probably more soon) operate off west Africa out of 
ports in Sierra Leone and Ghana and regularly navigate through the Caribbean 
and tropical Atlantic. Our vessels in recent years have conducted exploratory 
fishing trips in the Marquesas, Tuomota, Line and Phoenix Islands of eastern 
Oceania, and as far south as Juan Fernanez Island off Chile. 
Vessels are presently being prepared for commission in the fleet whose size 
(up to 1,000 carrying tons) and range is deliberately designed to permit custo- 
mary fishing operations in the eastern Pacific, eastern Atlantic, or central Pacific, 
whichever seems best at any particular season from the standpoint of fish avail- 
ability and market conditions. 
Our fish processing firms are all headquartered in southern California but 
among them are also operated canneries, refrigeration, or other fish processing 
facilities (either by themselves or by means of firms owned jointly with other 
entities) in American Samoa, New Hebrides Islands, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, 
Mexico, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, and Ghana. Other plants are being planned 
for installation elsewhere in west Africa, western Europe, and the Caribbean 
area. 
These companies operate refrigerated transport vessels, either owned or char- 
tered by them, to transport raw material and supplies between those points. 
To these plants are delivered catches not only of American-flag vessels and 
vessels of the countries in which they are situated, but also of Japanese, Span- 
ish, French, Norwegian, Nationalist China, Korean, and Portuguese vessels 
which make their catches in the tropical, subtropical, and temperate Pacific, 
Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. 
I have mentioned these details of our operations to illustrate why our views 
respecting ocean research are not parochially limited to the sea off California 
but are indeed worldwide in scope and almost as catholic as those of Senator 
Magnuson, as expressed in S. 901, and of the national interest as expressed in 
the reports of the National Academy of Science—National Research Council’s 
Committee on Oceanography. 
It will be my purpose below to treat briefly of those interests in three seg- 
ments of the world ocean by way of example. These are: (1) The eastern Pacific 
between 30° north latitude, 20° south latitude, 140° west longitude and the 
western coasts of the Americas; (2) the California Current area off the west 
eoast of the continental United States to a distance of about 1,000 miles from 
shore; and (3) the eastern Atlantic from 20° north latitude to 10° south latitude 
and to a distance of about 1,000 miles from the African coast. Before doing so, 
I wish to make some general comments on the bill. 
We favor strongly the adoption of the bill exactly as it stands. We would 
also favor the adoption of the bill if its details were considerably amended so 
long as those amendments do not limit the breadth of the U.S. Government’s 
ability and authority to inquire into the physical, chemical, and biological pro- 
cesses of the high seas of the world, the bottom below it and the air above and 
so long as those amendments do not dilute the objectives of the bill by spread- 
ee them over inquiries concerning the inland and strictly costal waters of the 
ation. 
With respect to the former, we believe that the Nation’s interest is as bound- 
less as the sea itself; with respect to the latter, we believe other bills and other 
means are adequate to properly cover the Nation’s interest in the inland and 
coastal waters, that the sector of the Nation’s ignorance upon which S. 901 is 
properly concentrated is that of the ocean out of sight of land, and that dilution 
of the bill to accommodate inland and coastal objectives will defeat its purpose by 
spreading the rather skimpy funds it authorizes over so much scientific inquiry 
that the Nation would remain, after its passage, about as ignorant concerning 
the high seas as it is now. 
In our view, this bill is primarily concerned with getting funds allocated to 
ocean research adequate to learn what the Nation needs to know about the 
ocean. Heretofore and presently most of the Nation’s ocean research facilities 
and agencies have been scattered through the structure of the executive branch 
in such a fashion that most parts of them are small units in large agencies. 
Hach of them gets starved by having larger entities in the agencies get all of or 
most increases in appropriations. In consequence of this, the whole ocean re- 
search establishment of the Nation is undernourished and incompetent for its 
great tasks. 
