NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 595 



the plans of other agencies in biological and geological research and to direct 

 its own growth to areas consistent with or complementary to the missions of 

 other agencies. The total effort of the Institution has been included in the 

 ICO's national oceanography program, beginning in fiscal year 1963 and is 

 subject to review by the ICO and its panels, as well as by the Federal Council for 

 Science and Technology and the Bureau of the Budget. 



The unique situation of the Smithsonian constituted by statute as an estab- 

 lishment which administers both Federal appropriations and private funds from 

 endowments, grants, and contracts, has enabled it to maintain the flexibility 

 necessary to accommodate varied public and private interests in its marine 

 program. Funds have been received from the Atomic Energy Commission and 

 the Navy for curating and study of collections made prior to the Bikini experi- 

 ments. Funds have been received from the Link Foundation for production 

 of a brochure, "Opportunities in Oceanography." With moneys from the U.S. 

 Antarctic research program of the National Science Foundation, the Institution 

 has sent scientists and collections personnel to the Antarctic and processes and 

 records Antarctic collections. 



A National Science Foundation grant and an ONR contract provide assistance 

 for the sorting and distribution of specimens as a part of the International Indian 

 Ocean Expedition. Assistance from the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the 

 Office of Naval Research have helped with sorting and study of collections of the 

 International Cooperative Investigations of the Tropical Atlantic. The Naval 

 Oceanographic Office has helped fund sorting of specimens within its interest. 

 Private individuals have donated siuns of money to the Institution for special 

 projects such as fieldwork in marine paleobiology, trips to dive on undersea 

 vehicles, collection of mollusks in the mid-Pacific and collecting in the Caribbean. 



When called upon by appropriate Federal agencies the Institution has engaged 

 in essential classified marine research supported by the Department of Defense ; 

 however, this type of research has never been a substantial percentage of the 

 Institution's program. 



From the beginning, the Institution has been dedicated to research and involved 

 in educational activities in cooperation with imiversities and other institutions 

 of higher learning. In the marine sciences a number of the Institution's staff 

 members have participated in educational programs of U.S. universities and have 

 served as experts in foreign educational efforts. Recently, in recognition of the 

 acute shortage of students of taxonomy and of trained systematists, and recog- 

 nizing the danger of separating scientists from graduate students, the Institu- 

 tion has arranged cooperative programs with several universities, including Duke, 

 Johns Hopkins, Kansas, and George Washington, and contemplates a relationship 

 with many others, to enable the Institution's scientists to train their successors. 

 Although the man-year investment of any one scientist in such activities may be 

 slight, the sum of the activities of the marine scientists will be a significant con- 

 tribution to graduate education of new systematists and real "insurance" that 

 the national collections are studied. 



Recruitment of new scientists into the Institution's marine program has been 

 reasonably successful. An outside advisory committee was convened in late 1962 

 to recommend an appropriate Federal level of effort in the Institution. The 

 committee believed, and that belief is shared in the Institution, that about 100 

 scientists are required to provide the necessary competence to serve the Nation's 

 oceanography efforts through 1970. Only about 12 of these scientists were em- 

 ployed in fiscal year 1962 and in fiscal year 1966, 46 scientists are utilized in the 

 program. 



As mentioned previously, the Institution in fiscal year 1962 had research com- 

 petence in marine invertebrates, mollusks, and fishes. Scientists have now been 

 employed with competence in various fields so that divisions of the museum hav- 

 ing marine scientists include Crustacea, mollusks. worms, echinodemis, fishes, 

 birds, invertebrate paleontology, paleobotany, sedimentology, petrology, and 

 cryptogams. Additional scientists are located in the Smithsonian Oceanographic 

 Sorting Center and a category of "senior scientist" has been established as an 

 award for merit, with full-time research assignment of a few persons within the 

 museum's departmental structure. 



The facilities for marine research in the Institution include headquarters in 

 the Museum of Natural History. A substantial portion of the approximately 17 

 acres of floor space in this museum are available for marine collections and lab- 

 oratories. The laboratories contain research microscopes, dissecting equipment, 

 microtomes, special viewing devices, electron microscopes, an electron probe 



