NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 579 



Commercial Fisheries has been getting systematic records of seabird sightings 

 from some commercial ships to gain information on the fisheries. Project Nep- 

 tune was different in that an effort was made to determine whether much more 

 extensive and sophisticated work could be done. 



The voyage of the Java Mail covered 17 days in October, in wliich the ship 

 traveled from Seattle to Yokohama and then to Hong Kong. On board were 

 members of a four-man scientific party which included two Ph. D.'s, and also two 

 committee staff members. They were John M. Drewry, an attorney who is chief 

 counsel to the full committee, and Paul M. Bauer, consultant to the committee, an 

 engineer who teaches earth sciences as an adjunct professor at American Univer- 

 sity in Washington. It is worth at least a footnote in the annals of Congress- 

 science relations that the two staff members went along and then gave the com- 

 mittee their assessment of the project. 



The original aim of Project Neptune-Pacific was simply to test equipment and 

 procedures and to determine whether the activities of the oceanographers would 

 create problems with the crew, or interfere with the operation of a merchant 

 ship. However, Dr. Clinton H. Maag, head of the life sciences department at the 

 Point Mugu Naval Missile Center, who was in the scientific party on the Java 

 Mail, told the committee, "we have come back with a relatively large volume of 

 data, especially large when one considers the actual investment in the cruise" 

 (about $14,000). 



The crucial question was whether oceanographic work could be done while the 

 Java Mail was traveling at normal cruising speeds (about 15 knots) ; oceano- 

 graphic research vessels usually either lie to or move very slowly when collecting 

 samples or data. The work had to be done without requiring the ship to slow or 

 alter course and without interfering with the crew. 



In addition to sowing drift cards and bottles, the scientific party took salinity 

 samples, made continuous surface-temperature measurements, and collected zoo- 

 plankton with a "jet net," a high-speed sampler with an intake designed to 

 minimize water turbulence. According to the scientists, they picked up samples 

 of zooplankton and larval animals at 16 knots and found 75 percent of the sam- 

 ples in "excellent" condition. 



The development of suitable instruments and rapid collection devices is a key 

 factor in realizing the ships-of -opportunity idea. The jet net seems to point the 

 way, and so does an "expendable bathythermometer," which detaches itself from 

 a float after being cast overboard and then transmits data, via a wire, as it sinks 

 to the bottom of the sea. Advocates of the ships-of-opportunity concept admit 

 that much needs to be done with instrumentation, and they hope that industry 

 will be motivated to step up R. & D. in this sector by the voyage of the Java Mail 

 and by Project Neptune- Atlantic, now in the offing under the aegis of Florida 

 Atlantic University, Boca Raton. 



Research ships of opportunity appear to have special appeal to marine bi- 

 ologists, many of whom tend to see themselves cast in the role of stepchildren 

 in the family of oceanography. They complain that deep-water research voyages 

 are too often planned to suit the requirements of those who do physical and 

 chemical oceanography at the expense of the seagoing biologists. 



While ships of opportunity may in fact provide splendid platforms for research 

 in fair weather and foul, the use of such ships would seem to be only half 

 the battle. At the hearing James M. Snograss, head of special development 

 at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, indicated this as a mild caveat in 

 what was otherwise a morning of unrelieved optimism. Feasibility of the ship 

 of opportunity he viewed as demonstrated, but he noted the importance of the 

 quality of instruments. 



"This, perhaps in a major way," he said, "accounts for our slowness in being 

 able to start, since it is only at the present time that suitable instruments have 

 in fact been available. They are by no means perfected at the moment, but 

 they are workable and quite practicable and usable. This in a way has opened 

 up the basic concept of expendable or disposable instruments. It is in fact 

 a major change in the availability of tools which the oceanographer has at 

 his command. I think without question this new concept is so significant 

 that it will require a great deal of rethinking of our methods of operation, and 

 further, it changes our basis of costing out the system. 



"We have entirely new relationships which we must think about. All of 

 this, of course, underscores the necessity of careful planning. It is quite 

 obvious that a major ship-of-opportunity program, assuming it gets underway, 



