NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 425 



This is a mixed hag of desires. What holds together all of these old and new 

 Industries and desires is just the environment — the ocean. It is very different 

 from the land environment which has dominated our whole racial history. It 

 is very different from the air environment in which we can now move around 

 fairly freely. It is quite different from the space environment in which we 

 are taking our first faltering step. 



It is a new environment to us when we get below the surface. Pressure is 

 a key problem as in space. Whereas in space lack of pressure must be dealt 

 with, in the ocean depths great pressures must be coped with. To conquer and 

 make this useful to us as an environment is not going to be much cheaper than 

 doing the same with nearby space. Certainly one part of the great he.sitancy 

 shown in the Bureau of the Budget toward any substantial reorganization of 

 ocean affairs in the Federal Government is the knowledge there that once the 

 United States embarks seriously on a meaningful program of conquering the 

 ocean environment and putting it to use we will be embarked on a very costly 

 enterprise that will involve in the long run some billions of dollars of expense 

 before it is on a paying basis. 



They have adopted, with much merit, the position of the prudent head of a 

 large corporation in the same position and said to give them a concrete pro.iect^ 

 or a group of concrete projects, with a schedule of costs and probable payouts. 

 While we are not in a position to do this completely at the moment, we have 

 made several solid starts on this : 



,(1) Upon informal request from the Navy in IQ'eS the National Security 

 Industrial Association established an ad hoc committee on ocean science and 

 technology to develop, with costs and justifications, a national ocean program. 

 This was completed by the NSIA and published as a 72-page report "A National 

 Ocean Program" in March 1964. So far as I know this is the only such broad 

 study that has been published by a group with industrial competence. The gist 

 of the report was : 



(a) Creation in the Federal Government of a National Ocean Science 

 and Technology Agency ; and 



(&) Budget provisions for the Agency of $900 million in 1965 rising to: 

 $3,100 million in 1970. 



(2) The National Academy of Sciences published a report of its Committee 

 on Oceanography in late 1964 entitled "Economic Benefits From Oceanographic 

 Research," NAS publication 1228. These quotes from its introduction are per- 

 tinent to our present purpose : 



"Our purpose is threefold : 



"(1) To obtain some idea of how much the expenditures planned for 

 the national oceanographic program can contribute to the economic well- 

 being of the United States ; 



" (2) To provide a very rough basis for comparing the anticipated economic 

 results from oceanographic research with those that might be obtained 

 through other expenditTires of the same funds ; and 



"(3) To suggest a conceptual and computational framework for estimating 

 the usefulness of investment of public funds in this field, which could be em- 

 ployed by other interested persons who might make quite different judgments 

 about the numerical values we have used. 

 "Our estimates indicate that a continuing national investment in oceanogi-aphy 

 of approximately $165 million a year (not counting the part for national defense) 

 will be an essential component in bringing about savings of nearly $3 billion a 

 year, plus added annual production worth almost as much. Ten to fifteen years 

 will be needed to achieve these gains, and other expenditures in addition to those 

 for marine research will be required if they are to be realized * * *." 



(3) Last spring the Department of Defense asked a prominent aerospace firm 

 to assist it in preparing an overall 5-year program on how oceanography /ocean 

 engineering could contribute to the peacetime economy of the United States. This 

 study was to be prepared under the following ground rules : 



(a) During the 5-year period there would be adequate qualified personnel 

 to manage and support such a program. 



(h) Such a program would contribute to the national and international 

 goals of the United States. 



(c) Such a program would be beneficial to the peacetime economy of the 

 United States. 



(d) Money would not be a limitation providing the above three ground 

 rules were carried out. 



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