NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 263 



with time, tluni a larger scale program will be developed to measure those char- 

 acteristics that are most meaningful, and this will be carried out on the scale 

 of at least a half ocean. In the meantime, the oceanographic survey ships will 

 continue to carry out limited oceanographic station measurements — particularly 

 along the north-south section already established between the Hawaiian and 

 Aleutian Islands, and along other comparable sections in other areas of ocean 

 survey operations. 



One additional operational alternative is that some of the ships be built 

 specifically for carrying out the underway portions of the survey, and others 

 be configured specifically for the ocean station operations. Each ship, however, 

 must 'be able to carry out the other phase to at least a limited degree. Thus the 

 underway ships should be able to carry out limited station observations, and 

 the ships configured iirimarily as ocean station ships should he able to do the 

 underway oibservations between stations. Similarly, all ships shall have the 

 capability of launching and recovering one or two oceanographic buoys to carry 

 out observations of the time-dependent variables on a limited scale while the 

 ship is cari-ying out other observations in the area. 



4. Schedule. — The schedule of accomplishments is tied directly to the delivery 

 dates of the various new ships designed and built for this survey program (table 

 I). The models for planning purposes developed by Operations Research, Inc., 

 iallow us to determine the level of accomplishment as a function of the delivery 

 of ships to work on the program. Each year the program will be planned ac- 

 cording to this model. If the ship-construction slips, then the entire program 

 can be rescheduled with the use of this mathematical model. 



5. Identifieation of resources. — The resources available to carry out this pro- 

 gram are tied primarily to the ship-construction schedule (table I). On this 

 schedule depend the level of manpower for the ships — ofiacers, technicians, crew, 

 and scientists both ashore and at sea. To this schedule is also tied the construc- 

 tion of new ships' bases with their attendant oceanographic laboratory facilities. 

 Thus there is in the fiscal year 1967 budget fvmds for the design of a new base 

 for which funds will be requested in fiscal year 1968. Similar design funds will 

 be requested in fiscal year 1970 for an additional base in fiscal year 1971. In the 

 past, the budgetary cycle has somehovi^ eliminated the requests for funds to pro- 

 vide for support personnel to process, analyze, interpret, and publish the data. 

 Automation at the data collection and data processing levels will in part alleviate 

 this situation, but only in part. 



The ocean survey program will include a steady buildup of personnel commen- 

 surate with the rate of delivery of the new ships. Personnel must be trained in 

 advance of delivery of the ships, and processing personnel must be attracted to 

 the Bureau and be trained to accommodate the regularly increasing inflow of data. 

 The work of Operations Research, Inc. (see especially ORI Technical Report No. 

 296, "Planning Implications of Coast and Geodetic Survey Personnel Require- 

 ments for a National Ocean Survey Program") has shown that the personnel will 

 be available when the time for their services is at hand. In brief, these require- 

 ments call for a doubling of the C. & G.S. personnel base for the ocean survey pro- 

 gram by 1970. 



Two specific areas where increased resources are absolutely required should be 

 pointed out. The first is in the area currently assigned jointly to the Oflice of 

 Research and Development and to the OflSce of Oceanography. The interpreta- 

 tion of the data obtained at sea — the conversion of processed oceanographic data 

 into new knowledge — is essential to a viable ocean survey program. Presently 

 a part of the Oflice of Research and Development is a very small stafE (four 

 persons) working on the conversion of hydrographic (hathymetric) data to mean- 

 ingful maps with their attendant geomorphological interpretation. This work is 

 especially important. The necessity of this work was realized by the Geological 

 Survey to the extent that they hired a marine geologist and supporting staff to 

 take the basic hydrographic surveys of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and con- 

 vert these into a complete hathymetric chart of the entire east coast continental 

 shelf and slope. This was done only hecause the Coast and Geodetic Survey was 

 unable to take the excellent work started by G. F. Jordan and build an effective 

 research group on the fomidation which he so effectively started. Therefore, it 

 is planned to add a minimum of two persons to the present group with each new 

 ship that is delivered. This will mean a total of 16 new people in this group by 

 the year 1971. Similarly within the Research Group of the Oflice of Oceanog- 

 raphy, there is now (1965) only one man with the experience necessary to 



