NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 513 



The role of the Federal Government in opening our West was to explore, to 

 map and to provide capital and land incentive for the private development of 

 the area. This role was a unique experiment a century and a half ago which 

 staggered the European mind with its audacity. Yet, the Federal Government 

 did not shirk its duty and responsibility and we are benefiting today because 

 of those previous policies. 



Are we any less audacious today? I think not. The frontiers of the sea, 

 great lalies, and 'the atmosphere between earth and space are before us. We 

 need to use their resources and i>owers. Government can again lead the way 

 through exploration, scientific inquiry, and capital incentive for business and 

 private capital to follow. We need only to channel our energies and coordinate 

 our efforts to lift the curtain of uncertainty from the realm of the little known. 



The lifting of this curtain requires recognition of a little realized fact. The 

 fact is that we now possess the technical knowledge and industrial capacity to 

 live, work, explore, and exploit the resources of the marine world. Heretofore, 

 the main thrust of governmental concern with marine and atmospheric affairs 

 has been in the realm of basic scientific inquiry. For a long time, scientific 

 knowledge has been ahead of the engineering technology required to accelerate 

 exploration and resource development in marine environments. This is no 

 longer the case. We now realize that technology has caught up and even 

 surpassed basic science. We already are able to pursue a vigorous course of 

 marine resource utilization which will enhance our economy and greatly con- 

 tribute to our general welfare. We have the technology, we have but to use it. 



Apparently, this baeic fact did not influence the administration in its prepara- 

 tion of the Reorganization Plan No. 2 proposal. This plan is directed essentially 

 toward the coordination of basic scientific inquiry within the interrelated fields 

 of marine and atmospheric affairs. This is a sound proposal as far as it goes — 

 but now is the time for governmental action to go further. True, our programs 

 must continue scientific research and inquiry — but this must be in partnership 

 with the technologies of use and development. We must use basic scientific 

 research plus technology as a workable combination to master and use these 

 still unutilized areas of earth for the benefit of man. 



We shall require as much effort and as complicated equipment to 

 conquer the marine environs as we now use to conquer outer space. 

 The equipment necessary includes : vehicles to come and go from work 

 sites and in which to map and explore, together with navigational 

 and propulsion systems for these vehicles, underwater construction 

 tecliniques, unique construction materials, communication systems, 

 power and distribution systems, and a wide variety of new techniques to 

 work in an aquatic environment. We have the technical knowledge to 

 develop these systems. In fact, many now exist. We need only to de- 

 fine and coordinate our national efforts and provide the incentive to 

 attract the interest of those technological industries with the capacity 

 to do the job. 



So much for perspective. I would like to draw attention now to 

 some of the effects and problems e^ddent in our present national effort : 



First, despite unused fisheries resources in our own waters, we do 

 not catch the fish we eat, expending about $600 million amiually abroad 

 for the importation of fisheries products. This represents a substan- 

 tial part of our dollar drain. Wliile our own fishing industry is dying, 

 the foreign fishing industries are rapidly growing. 



Because our resources are unsued, an increasing volume of Asiatic 

 and European fishermen are attracted by our default to use our waters 

 and catch our resources. All too frequently these foreign fishermen 

 utilize exploitive practices in our own waters, seriously imdermining 

 our resource conservation efforts. All this evades the law of the sea 

 and the Continental Shelf doctrine and causes extreme embarrassment 

 to our State Department and much international tension. 



Accenting this international problem is the relatively low status of 

 our representatives in the Department of State, Interior, or Commerce 



