MARINE SCIENCES AND RESEARCH ACT 15 
A significant paragraph in this section states as follows: 
The Congress further declares that sound policy requires 
that the United States not be excelled in the fields of oceano- 
graphic research, basic, military or applied, by any nation 
which may presently or in the future threaten our general 
welfare, maritime commerce, security, access to and utiliza- 
tion of ocean fisheries, or the contamination of adjacent seas 
by the dumping of radioactive wastes or other harmful 
agents. 
Such a policy requires, the section amplifies, construction and 
modernization of research and survey ships and marine laboratories, 
development of new hydrographic research tools, recruitment of 
prospective oceanographers, collection and classification of biological 
marine data, establishment of a national oceanographic records center 
and development of formal international cooperation in the marine 
sciences and oceanographic surveys on a reciprocal basis subject to 
the approval of the President. 
The Division of Marine Sciences would be authorized and directed to 
develop and encourage a continuing national policy and program for 
the promotion of oceanographic research, surveys, and education in 
the marine sciences; recommend contracts, grants, loans or other 
forms of assistance for the development and operation of this program; 
cooperate with and encourage the cooperation of agencies participating 
in the program; foster interchange of pertinent scientific information, 
and evaluate the scientific aspects of programs of marine research, 
surveys and taxonomy undertaken by agencies of the Federal Govern- 
ment for work in these scientific fields. 
In other words the Division of Marine Sciences of the National 
Science Foundation would serve in a coordinating and evaluation 
capacity in addition to exercising certain planning and policy functions 
in connection with the 10-year oceanographic program and to giving 
direct assistance to that program through grants, loans, or contracts 
for research and education. 
Your committee had two alternatives in placing responsibility for 
coordination and evaluation of the national program as it progresses. 
It could create a separate agency, as was done with respect to the 
development of the nuclear and space sciences, or it could designate an 
appropriate unit within an existing agency to undertake these responsi- 
bilities and functions. 
The latter was preferred. Establishment of an independent ocean- 
ographic agency, it was believed, might duplicate or disrupt marine 
activities of a number of existing Federal offices and bureaus, create 
conflicts of authority, and increase capital and operating costs. 
For development of nuclear energy or the space sciences establish- 
ment of separate and independent agencies was appropriate because 
both were relatively new, as was the Government’s interest in them. 
Nor were these programs widely dispersed among the various Federal 
departments and bureaus. 
The marine sciences, on the other hand, are not new. 
They merely have been neglected. 
Work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in this field, for example, 
dates back to 1807, and that of the Hydrographic Office to 1830. 
Both have, in times past, made significant contributions to our knowl- 
edge of the oceans, but their achievements often have been obscured 
