NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 327 



It is an issue that cuts across every segment of society and it is very 

 difficult to see how there could be centralized planning. There cer- 

 tainly has to be joint planning and understanding of the limitations 

 of the various groups involved. 



I think it is important that as we look ahead to develop those areas, 

 for example, that the Federal Government could only take the lead in, 

 and I think it is clear what some of them are. 



The large scale surveying operations of the oceans is clearly not a 

 function that you can say is the responsibility of industry to take the 

 lead in. 



I think the Federal Government has to take the lead here. 



Mr. Bauer. I was thinking particularly of the locations of mineral 

 resources on the Continental Shelf. 



In view of the fact that the current expenditures of the oil and phys- 

 ical science industries are around $300 million a year, I was wondering 

 if we were intending to duplicate their work. 



Dr. Morse. I would not feel competent to comment in detail, I do 

 know that Admiral Karo has looked into the type of surveys that the 

 oil companies do, that clearly there is much information that is of use 

 and has to be exchanged but also much of this information is very 

 specific in nature and where the measurement standards are not up to 

 the qualities that you would want to see as basic information on which 

 the whole program should be based. 



Mr. Bauer. Thank you. Doctor. There is one last question I have. 



In Dr. Hornig's testimony on page 300, he says as follows : 



Dr. HoENiG. Tlie ICO itself has done a great deal of soul searching, but what 

 I referred to is that it has the difficulties that any interagency coordinating group 

 has, which is that people are a mixture of representatives of someone else and 

 free intellectual agencies. 



Could you talk to that ? What is this "soul searching" ? 



Dr. Morse. I have never yet been on a committee, sir, that did not 

 spend 25 percent of its time justifying itself to itself. 



Mr. Bauer. Is it the question of working for an agency and working 

 on a joint planning committee? 



Dr. Morse. I would not say conflict, I would say competition. 



The members of the committee are themselves, of course, involved 

 in the oceanographic activity of their own agency and, therefore, have 

 something to say about what goes on in that agency, and rather than 

 talking about someone else's problem, I could mention, say, my own 

 as participating on the committee, because I am also Assistant Secre- 

 tary of the Navy. 



It has become clear to me that in that mixed role that I have myself 

 that I have to perform two judgments in a sense, often on the same 

 question, and I think one has to admit that they may not always come 

 out the same. 



That is I am sitting on the ICO where I feel that my duty and 

 obligation is to promote the strongest oceanographic position of the 

 Government, that within the context we are judging issues there, that 

 the desire to pursue a given course or given level of expenditure, say, 

 may be evident, but that when I come back and then deal with that 

 part of the budget of the Navy, say, which has oceanography in com- 

 petition as it should with other areas in the Navy, then one makes a 



