10 MARINE SCIENCES AND RESEARCH ACT 
that the Department of Commerce seek such clear-cut legislative 
authority from the Congress. 
S. 2692 would provide the authority necessary for the agency to 
carry out those segments of the oceanographic program assigned to it 
under the bill. 
To sum up the preliminary steps toward an oceanographic program, 
the Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior, Navy 
Department, Atomic Energy Commission, and National Science Foun- 
dation sponsored and financed independent and extensive studies by 
outside committees of highly qualified and wholly objective scientists. 
These studies were completed. Reports were prepared. The re- 
ports were furnished to the sponsors. 
Strong emphasis is placed in these reports on the needs for greatly 
expanded and coordinated research in all marine scientific fields, and 
a program for such expansion and coordination is outlined. This 
program has been embodied in the bill. 
The needs are established. They are known to the agencies, to 
the Congress, to scientific organizations and institutions, and, as evi- 
denced by the large correspondence the bill has generated, to the 
general public. 
Similar consideration must be given to the benefits. 
BENEFITS TO BE ANTICIPATED From a NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC 
ResearcH Poricy AND PROGRAM 
The benefits which would accrue from the program authorized in 
S. 2692 can be roughly classified as: 
1. Miltary. 
2. Economie. 
3. Welfare. 
4. International. 
Some of the benefits in each of these categories previously have 
been touched on. But many remain, many of them brought out at 
hearings on the bill before your committee. 
Military benefits would include: 
Enhanced security from surprise attack by missile-launching enemy 
submarines. This will be achieved when we know more about under- 
water acoustics and have perfected our surveillance and detection 
systems. This will require extensive data on undersea water densities. 
To quote a forthcoming report of the Committee on Oceanography 
titled ‘‘Oceanography Research for Defense Applications’’: 
Density (temperature and salinity) is the fundamental 
parameter needed for an understanding and use of the 
propagation of acoustical energy. Applications of this in- 
formation are particularly important in forecasting sonar 
ranges, in all types of submarine and antisubmarine warfare, 
in convoy routing, in mine warfare, and in the planning and 
development of all types of detection and communications 
systems which employ acoustic energy. Since sea water is 
virtually opaque to all other forms of radiated energy, 
underwater sound offers the only foreseeable means of long- 
range detection, communication, and monitoring. 
“Today, there is no adequate defense against the nuclear, missile- 
launching submarine,” states the official publication of the Navy 
