MARINE SCIENCE 157 
STATEMENT BY Dr. WAYNE V. Burt, CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF OCEANOGRAPHY, 
OREGON STATE COLLEGE, CORVALLIS, OREG. 
Hon. WARREN G. Magnuson, 
Chairman, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 
OS. Senate, Washington, D.O. 
Str: A copy of your new bill on marine sciences, 8. 901, was received from 
your office several days ago and I have been studying it in detail with much 
pleasure. I am impressed with your understanding of the urgent need for 
expanded Federal support for private and State oceanographic institutions as 
well as Federal organizations already operating in the field. his bill is a 
comprehensive piece of legislation that is consistent with this broad necessity. 
In addition, it is specific in its analysis of the problems involved and positive 
in selection of actions to be taken. I wish you success in attaining passage 
by the U.S. Senate. 
As you know, the importance of both basic and applied research in oceanog- 
raphy has only been generally comprehended recently. The true needs have 
only been known by a few men working in Federal, State, and private organiza- 
tions with definite missions in or on the oceans. Fortunately, during the years 
since World War II, oceanography has attracted and held a number of excep- 
tionally able and devoted scientists. Recent strides in pure discovery, in ingeni- 
ous application of electronic and sonic techniques, and in international co- 
operation are striking. Within the past 10 years two strong ocean currents 
have been discovered and mapped, where they had not been previously known 
to exist. Underwater television and free diving vehicles have become alinost 
everyday tools; sonic devices have been improved until we can see individual 
fish many yards below a ship. Exchange of data and ideas has greatly in- 
creased principally due to IGY. 
Now the oceanography discipline finds itself with a good strong program in its 
inception but with a need for more tools with which to work. Your bill would 
adequately furnish support for these tools (ships, laboratories, instruments, 
and operating funds). 
As chairman of a federally supported university department of oceanography, 
I feel that we have two primary responsibilities. One is to carry on free 
basic research in oceanography which appeals to our researchers. This will 
lead to new basic facts about the oceans with ultimate applied uses. The second 
responsibility is to interest, and to educate young men and women who have 
the scientific potential to become the oceanographers needed for both pure and 
applied research. Only in this way will the great pool of intelligence in our 
young people throughout the country contribute the stimulated (and stimulat- 
ing) young minds this scientific field must have to prosper. Our colleagues 
in the Government laboratories have told us repeatedly they need these trained 
personnel most urgently and that they look to us to provide them. 
To accomplish this task, we need the help of the U.S. Senate and the House 
of Representatives. We need encouragement and support both of university 
teaching and research, and of the programs of the Government laboratories and 
institutions, since the field must grow in a well-rounded way. 
A university’s first task is to attract and maintain a staff of able and energetic 
scientists who are devoted to teaching and are also experienced in research. 
Oceanography is still, to a great extent, an empirical science where active 
research must be pursued side by side with teaching programs to give the 
student a full understanding of the field. Nuclei of faculty are now actively 
at work at over a dozen institutions of higher learning around the coasts of 
the United States and near the Great Lakes. Most of these institutions need 
grant-supported faculty members to meet the rising demand for instructors and 
senior researchers. A good start has been made. The university and labora- 
tory staffs will grow, if the present training program is supported and expanded 
through grants as provided for in your bill. 
A second consideration is the need for tools for research. These are ships, 
instruments, and shore laboratories. All State and private oceanographic 
laboratories are desperately crowded for research space. The U.S. Navy and 
other Federal agencies have generously provided ships for conversion for use 
as oceanographic vessels whenever possible, but naval officials have been among 
the first to realize our difficulties in using converted ships for purposes for 
which they were never intended. Special ships are urgently needed by virtually 
all of the seagoing facilities, Government and private institutions alike. 
