NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 361 



attendant costs. And, I mig-ht add, they are presented in a manner 

 that is very attractive from the businessman's point of view. 



A major thrust into the ocean could be expected to become a rec- 

 oo-nizable element in our gross national product and help to satisfy 

 the future need for new employment opportunities in both the pro- 

 fessional and labor markets. 



The national economy has become increasingly dependent on imports 

 from sensitive areas of the world because of a depletion of certain of 

 our domestic resources. And the implications here — in an era of 

 possible major conflict — must not be understated. In sliort, the re- 

 vitalization of our resource recovery industries should be a national 

 goal of the highest priority and can be accomplished by opening the 

 frontiers of the sea to their use. 



The frontiers of earth — and now of space — have long inspired 

 Americans to greatness and to progress. All Americans flew with 

 John Glenn in his historic flight beyond the frontier of our atmos- 

 phere — and this was not far removed from childhood remembrances 

 of the exploits of Buck Rogers. The adventure of undersea explora- 

 tion fancifully related in the fiction of Jules Verne now offers another 

 real and worthwhile adventure for man beyond his early horizons. 



Recent public showings of Captain Cousteau's film "World Without 

 Sun" have eliminated imaginative speculation and plunged many 

 Americans into serious thinking about man's ability to live and work 

 in the new environment of inner space. To the public, a major thrust 

 into the world ocean has come to seem a natural and reasonable part 

 of the technological revolution. 



Science and technology have opened the way beyond this undersea 

 frontier by virtue of our military experience in submarine and missile 

 technology and as a result of private investment by oil, mining, and 

 fisheries interests, power companies, and private explorers. The 

 Navy's Sea Lab II program off California this year and Captain 

 Cousteau's Conshelf will establish that man can live and do useful 

 ^vork in the shallow oceans, at least to the limits of the Continental 

 Shelves. 



But these and similar achievements have propelled our undersea 

 technology to a level beyond that of our oceanographic science. In- 

 deed, our scientific knowledge of the sea is so limited that beyond 

 certain elementary assumptions, we cannot forecast the scientific prob- 

 lems, much less define them adequately, with certainty. This much, 

 however, is certain : Unless we achieve a much better understanding 

 of the ocean, further development of ocean technology will be stifled. 



In short, all the motivations for an effective national ocean program 

 are present, but we lack the broad base of scientific knowledge needed 

 to proceed with this major endeavor. I think this is the first case, at 

 least to my knovxdedge, where the technology is actually advanced be- 

 yond the science, and the technology is, in fact, pushing the science. 



Now, to gain this scientific competence is not something that indus- 

 try or the academic community can achieve for itself. The job is too 

 big for private investment or endowment. More significantly, it is 

 too closely linked to the formation of public policy to be entrusted to 

 private direction. In brief, the problems faced by the ocean sciences 

 are outside the ability or sphere of any private group. It is tradi- 

 tionally and most appropriately a major effort which requires action 

 and coordination on the Federal level. 



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