428 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



goal enough for me and my ilk. What the man said about Mount Everest, that 

 it had to be climbed just because it was there, is about as sensible as you can 

 make this basically irrational drive. 



But I do recogni;:e the need of others for a more clear-cut crutch upon which 

 to lean their emotional drives, and with which to excuse themselves privately 

 and publicly. Accordingly it may be necessary, for public relations reasons, to 

 establish such a clear-cut goal, as is the race to put a man on the Moon, in order 

 to get us off dead center on the ocean use program. Utility will not do it. No- 

 body can tell you, coherently, what is useful about putting a man on the Moon 

 ahead of the Russians — or ever. 



As a matter of fact I think it to be a positive handicap in establishing such 

 far-out goals for an ocean program that there is almost nothing outlandish you 

 can think of doing with, or in, or under the ocean that is not likely to prove to 

 be very useful to us, and rather quickly. 



You can't get much further out in this business than going out to sea and 

 boring a hole through the Earth's crust under the deep ocean to see whether 

 what is underneath is hot and bubbly or not. But Oi)eration Mohole is already 

 pedestrian, and financed, and nearly forgotten by the public before it is done. It 

 wasn't hard enough to do. Already it is about to pay off big dividends in im- 

 proved drilling techniques, and the National Science Foundation is not only 

 financing this, but at the same time financing a whole swatch of drill holes in shal- 

 lower water out on the Continental Shelf. 



The man-in-the-sea program, as presently contemplated (putting folks down 

 on the Continental Shelf to live and work in a hundred fathoms of water for a 

 week or two at a time) is also a little on the humdrum side now. Costeau, Link, 

 and their ilk have this problem so well in hand that it is not diflScult enough any 

 longer, in this age, with which to excite great dreams and great expectations. 



There is one goal, however, that would be just about as diflicult as putting a 

 man on the Moon, yet within the realm of possibilities. 



That goal would be the occupation of a section of the deep sea bed on behalf 

 of the United States. 



You can't readily think of anything more prestigious or beneficial from the 

 standpoint of the posture of the United States than to do this. The capability 

 of occupying a piece of the deep sea bed would be so beneficial as to make the 

 placement of colonies on Antarctica, or even on the Moon, pale by comparison. 

 Once you could do that the whole power position of the world would be changed 

 again until the Russians, or somebody else, could do it also. It would be a clear 

 signal to all hands that you had conquered this last environment and it was 

 yours to use. 



While this is not an impossible goal, it is unnecessarily visionary and difficult 

 for the beginning purpose of getting our national ocean program off dead center. 

 The lesser, but still enormous prestigious and useful, goal (and within reason- 

 able reach) would be to put a man or two down on one of the higher spots of the 

 Atlantic Ridge long enough to claim that spot as a piece of sovereign U.S. terri- 

 tory. That, even, would take a little of the shine off of the Moon adventure. 



A big advantage of this midgoal (aside from the sunken Atlantic myth that 

 would carry a good ways) is that if you could start at a depth of about 500 

 fathoms on this great adventure, you could worl<: your way gradually downhill 

 to the ultimate goal of occupying the deep sea floor. There will be found fabu- 

 lous mineral riches beyond compare. 



THE PRESENT SITUATION 



A considerable disadvantage in considering the present series of bills is the 

 need for differentiating clearly between science in the academic, discipline-ori- 

 ented sense, and ocean-use activities, which includes such science as a vitally nec- 

 essary ingredient but goes much further. 



The genesis of this most recent enthusiasm over ocean activity in the United 

 States was initiated when, on August 9, 1956, Rear Adm. Rawson Bennett, acting 

 for the office of Naval Research and three other Federal agencies, requested 

 President Detlev Bronk. National Academy of Sciences, to appoint a committee 

 representing the scientific community to provide advice and guidance on needs 

 and opporiuntities of oceanograpbic research. NASCO, the Academy's Commit- 

 tee on Oceanography, was established in the following year (November 1957), 

 issued the summary of its 12-volume report 2 years later (Feb. 15, 1959), 

 upon which the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries and the 



