NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 261 



plications requires tlie basic data from the ocean survey program not only to 

 help answer some present questions but also to help formulate new and chal- 

 lenging questions to ask of the ocean. The requirements of the various agencies 

 of the I'ederal Government for the data to be developed by the (K.-ean survey 

 subprogram are presented in general terms in ICO publication 7, and in more 

 specific terms in the OKI reports (see especially ORI Technical Report No. 

 311, "User Requirements and National Ocean Survey Planning"). In actuality, 

 however, it is difficult to justify this ocean survey program solely in terms of 

 present needs. It is primarily an exploration program and should be understood 

 as such. As| an exploration program, it should not and does not require specific 

 justifications in terms of present-day data needs. It is, for example, almost im- 

 possible to establish cost-benefit ratios for such a program, for many, if not 

 most, of the benefits will be realized only after the program is well underway. 

 It would be unfortunate if the United States were to undertake only those pro- 

 grams for which there were immediate needs ; we must also think of the long 

 term needs and be perfectly willing to provide some answers for which the 

 questions have yet to be formulated. 



2. Objectives. — To meet these requirements, the objective of the ocean survey 

 program is to provide within a reasonable amouint of time accurate base maps 

 of the topography of the sea floor, of its geophysical and geological character- 

 istics, and to provide for the systematic collection, compilation, and presentation 

 of statistically significant data on the time-dependent variables in the water of 

 the sea and in the atmosphere above it. One characteristic of land mapping 

 is that it is never completed. So too the mapping of the sea will probably never 

 be completely done to the satisfaction of all possible requirements in the most 

 minute of detail. However, the magnitude of the task to provide base maps of 

 the ocean can be fairly well calculated as a function of the distance between 

 lines of underway operations and the number of oceanographic stations to be 

 occupied. Assuming 10 nautical miles between lines and a total of 10,000 sta- 

 tions, the requirement is for 295 ship-years. The time to accomplish this task 

 thus becomes merely a function of how many ships can be devoted to the task 

 at one time. A mathematical model has been prepared whereby the various 

 input parameters can be varied to determine just how long such a survey might 

 take at any given line spacing, or number of stations, or length of time on sta- 

 tion, speed of the ships, numbers of ships, even anticipated survey limitations 

 due to weather. This model will prove an invaluable tool as the work is planned 

 in detail. 



The immediate end product of the program will be charts and data listings. 

 A secondary end product will be interpretive papers to be published following 

 detailed analysis of the processed and published data. 



3. Courses of action. — When the ocean survey program was originally developed 

 by the Interagency Committee on Oceanography, it w^as anticipated that the 

 Navy would carry out one-half of the effort. This was also the specific recom- 

 mendation of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Oceanography. 

 However, as the actual program planning began to take place, the Navy quite 

 specifically stated that their ships and manpower were totally committed to 

 urgent military requirements that precluded them taking any part in a national 

 ocean survey program,. The Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries have played active roles in the meteorological and biological phases of 

 the progi-am to date and will continue to do so. Similarly, the Geological Survey 

 has also had people aboard the Pioneer in the limited work to date, and the 

 Smithsonian Institution will assist in the sorting and storage of both biological 

 and geological samples when the analyses and research work on them are com- 

 pleted. However, the major portion of the program, including all of the ship 

 operations at sea, must by default become the responsibility solely of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey. 



As T. Wayland Vaughn stated in the preface of the 1937 report of the NAS 

 Committee on Oceanography, "It is obvious that any comprehensive systematic 

 investigation of the oceans must be in large measure an international enter- 

 prise." The same sentiment was echoed in the NASCO report of 1959, and plans 

 for such international cooperation have been outlined in ICO Pamphlet No. 7, 

 National Plan for Ocean Surveys (pp. 29-31) . 



However, the Coast and Geodetic Survey will not delay its own survey efforts 

 pending the completion of the international cooperative plan. The task is so 

 large — 295 ship-years — ^that the international plan will hopefully have been 

 worked out long before the United States completes even the 30 percent that 



