NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1965 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Oceanography of the 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington, D.C. 

 The subcommittee met at 10:30 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 

 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Paul G. Rogers pre- 

 siding. 



Mr. Eogers. The committee will now continue the hearings on 

 oceanography. 



Our first witness this morning is the gentleman from Massachu- 

 setts, the Honorable F. Bradford Morse. 



STATEMENT OE HON. F. BRADEORB MORSE, A REPRESENTATIVE 

 IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS 



Mr. Morse. The past two decades have proven to be an era of pio- 

 neering, exploration, and discovery in science — never before in history 

 has there been a more productive period in this or in any other field. 

 But in this era we have devoted a great deal of our energies to atomic 

 science and space exploration, and have seemed to neglect an equally 

 important branch of science — oceanogTaphy. The water that covers 

 three-fourths of the earth's surface contains countless untapped re- 

 sources, which if harvested, could provide incalculable benefit to the 

 people of the world. But there can be no benefit derived from these 

 resources without research and tecluiology in oceanography, and there 

 can be no such research and technology without an impetus from the 

 Federal Government, encouraging this work through extensive ocean- 

 ographic programs. 



As it stands now, there are numerous departments, agencies, and 

 private concerns which are engaged in various types of oceanographic 

 research. This sort of work is inadequate, however, for two basic 

 reasons. First, each concern does research only in those areas which 

 affect it directly, thus many areas are totally neglected. Second, since 

 information gained by one concern is virtually unavailable to others, a 

 considerable amount of duplication of work occurs. For an efficient 

 oceanographic program, there must be created an agency whose pur- 

 pose it would be to formulate oceanographic programs, as well as to 

 coordinate information gained by other concerns. The councils pro- 

 vided for in S. 944 would fulfill these requirements effectively, and 

 place oceanography on a par with space, aeronautics, and atomic 

 energy. 



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