24 MARINE SCIENCES AND RESEARCH ACT 
tion sampling, pond fish culture and brackish water farming, ecologi- 
cal mapping, taxonomy, estuary resources and potentials of nutrient 
increase. ‘lhese would be limited to $10 million per annum. The 
Committee on Oceanography, in its report, estimated that the total 
cost of these studies over a 10-year period would not exceed 
$67,430,000, the costs beginning at a moderate level and approximately 
doubling after the first 5 years, and after facilities in the form of ships 
and laboratories had been constructed for the work. 
Many of these studies, however, it is presumed by your committee, 
would be farmed out to non-Federal agencies, universities, or institu- 
tions through the program of grants authorized in section '5(a). 
Final authorization in section 6 is that of $11 million for continuing 
studies over a 10-year period of increased utilization of marine prod- 
ucts, the development of new uses of these products, for legal and 
economic studies relating to commercial fisheries, and for investigation 
of the mineral resources of the seas. It is specifically stated that in 
directing these studies the Secretary of the Interior shall give full 
consideration to their being carried on in existing institutions, agen- 
cies, or laboratories through the issuance of grants. 
A broad program would be assigned to agencies within the Depart- 
ment of the Interior. Execution of this program would require not 
only legislative authorizations and subsequent appropriations but a 
determination on the part of the Department and agencies to enhance 
utilization of the ocean’s resources in the national interest and for 
the benefit of the American people. 
Your committee, in reporting this bill, considers that the potential 
values of the resources of the oceans and of the Great Lakes merit the 
research facilities and studies authorized. 
What these values may be was ably cereitenr each for the committee 
at its hearings on the bill by Comdr. C. Wilbur, USN, in a 20- 
minute pr esentation. Commander W iIbur said in part: 
Fish: The sea is presently supplying only a small percent 
of its potential food harvest. Although 35 million tons of 
fish in various forms are taken annually, this might well be 
increased 10 times or more. 
Minerals: The sea is also rich in minerals—in fact, oceanic 
waters contain more minerals than have been mined by man 
in all history. Each cubic mile of sea water contains 18 mil- 
lion tons of dissolved salts of sodium, potassium, calcium, 
bromine, and phosphorous. There is enough gold in the sea 
to make every inhabitant of the world a millionnaire. In 
addition, on the floor of the deep seas—in the form of nod- 
ules—lie deposits of cobalt, copper, nickel, iron, and man- 
ganese. 
Oil wells: As each day passes our world requires more fuel 
to produce energy. Offshore—under the sea of the Conti- 
nental Shelves—tlies 40 percent of the world’s known petro- 
leum—20 million barrels of it. As commercial atomic power 
becomes a practical reality, the world’s oceans offer a promis- 
ing fuel source. Sea water is a source of both uranium for 
fission-produced power and deuterium for heavy hydrogen 
or thermonuclear power. 
In the opinion of your committee, this country can ill afford to take 
second place in exploring and developing these potentials. 
