Calendar No. 1588 
86TH CONGRESS \ SENATE | REpor?T 
2d Session No. 1525 
MARINE SCIENCES AND RESEARCH ACT 
INSTITUTION ARCHIVES 
JuNE 7, 1960.—Ordered to be printed WH.O.I. DATA LIBRARY 
WOODS HOLE. MA. 02543 
Mr. Maenuson, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign 
Commerce, submitted the following 
REPORT 
[To accompany S. 2692] 
The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom 
was referred the bill (S. 2692) to advance the marine sciences, establish 
a 10-year program of oceanographic research and surveys, promote 
commerce and navigation, secure the national defense, expand ocean 
) resources, authorize the construction of research and survey ships and 
facilities, assure systematic studies of effects of radioactive materials 
i Marine environments, enhance the general welfare and for other 
purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon, with 
amendments, and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. 
INTRODUCTION 
5. 2692 is designed to meet a pressing need. 
That need is to unveil the secrets of inner space—the oceans. 
Oceans cover 72 percent of earth’s surface, an area nine times 
ereater than that of the moon. 
Their water volume is eight times that of the land above them. 
The world’s greatest mountain ranges and deepest canyons lie 
hidden in the oceans. 
They control, in large measure, our weather and climate. They 
are a distinctive feature of our planet and it may be no other planet 
in the solar system has them. 
They are the vast repository for wastes and sediments, organic 
and inorganic, of a billion years, and hold untold wealth in minerals 
and fossil fuels. 
They are the last open range from which we will be able to amplify 
future protein food supplies. 
Oceans no longer isolate nations but link them. The United 
States has ties, economic or military or both, with 58 other nations 
of the free world, physically separated from us only by the oceans, 
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