270 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



First, it clarifies the intent of national oceanographic policy so that 

 our policy is directed toward the peaceful and economic uses of the 

 ocean (over and above its defense uses) instead of being centered upon 

 science development. Second, it establishes a National Oceanographic 

 Council whose responsibilities are to carry out national planning, pol- 

 icy formulation, and broad discussion of national goals with respect 

 to ocean problems and ocean resources at the highest executive branch 

 level. Third, the bill creates the Marine Exploration Development 

 Commission as a new operating agency to provide a center for im- 

 plementing national goals relative to nondefense uses of the ocean and 

 to fill in the gaps not now provided for by missions of other agencies 

 doing oceanographic work. Fourth, the legislation recognizes the need 

 for accelerated action and the need for developing partnerships with 

 universities and industries by authorizing a separate marine explora- 

 tion and development fund. 



If we do any less than provide for all four of these parallel actions, 

 we will not have treated the total oceanographic question nor will we 

 have placed the consideration of ocean resources at the level of import- 

 ance which it ought to command. 



A principal difficulty of our present national posture on oceanog- 

 raphy is that we tend to think of it in the context of science and tech- 

 nology. The existing coordination is carried on under the Federal 

 Council for Science and Teclinology through the Interagency Com- 

 mittee on Oceanography. This results from the fact that our consid- 

 erations of the oceanographic question have steemed mainly from our 

 desires to explore and understand the oceans. It is also a recognition 

 that our sights are too limited. 



It is time we gave national visibility to our interests in the ocean 

 as a broad resource pool and as an area of geography. That part of 

 the ocean designated as the Continental Shelf has been recently 

 acknowledged to be a matter of national sovereignty. The extent of 

 the geographical area of the Continental Shelf is said, in fact, to be 

 greater than that involved in the Louisiana Purchase. Our approach 

 to developing the Continental Shelf should be in keeping with the 

 development of other national resources. In this sense, we have estab- 

 lished precedents in dealing with development of our West. The Con- 

 tinental Shelf can be viewed as additional geography which should be 

 handled with the same foresight that was used in the development of 

 other new lands. 



National policy should recognize furthermore that the oceans are 

 a common source of supply of resources beyond the Continental Shelf. 

 It should be our national goal to establish a resource development 

 position that will make our international posture competitive. Those 

 working under our free enterprise system in developing economic 

 resources of the ocean should enjoy a favorable position with respect 

 to competitors from other nations who come to this same source of 

 supply. In a very real sense, superiority in developing the ocean's 

 resources will go to the nation which is able to develop the best tech- 

 nology. 



Consequently, the first intent of this proposed legislation is to in- 

 dicate that the science element of oceanography is only a part of tlie 

 broader national policy on oceanography as a subject of resource de- 

 velopment and resource economics. 



