MARINE SCIENCE 11 



Shortly after issuance of the initial report the Committee on Inter- 

 state and Foreign Commerce unanimously approved and the Senate 

 adopted Senate Kesolution 136 commending the Committee — the out- 

 side committee— on Oceanography and its objectives. 



At the close of the first session of the present Congress, 13 Senators,, 

 including myself, introduced S. 2692, designed to implement the major 

 recommendations of the Committee on Oceanography calling for a 

 comprehensive 10-year program of oceanographic research and sur- 

 veys. 



Undoubtedly this bill, like most legislation when first drafted, can 

 be improved as a result of the advice and counsels obtained during the 

 course of these hearings, but I submit that the basic purpose of the 

 proposed measure must stand. 



That purpose is to assure the United States a fund of scientific 

 knowledge of the oceans, their estuaries, and the Great Lakes second 

 to that of no other nation, to provide the facilities for obtaining that 

 knowledge, and to encourage the education and training of an adequate 

 number of scientists and technicians to assemble that knowledge and 

 to make maximum use of it after it is obtained. 



This program, as envisioned by the Committee on Oceanography 

 and in S. 2692, would entail an annual expenditure of about $65 

 million. Is such an expenditure justified ? 



That question will, I believe, be resolved to the satisfaction of this 

 committee during the course of these hearings. It must be weighed 

 from the standpoint of both military and peacetime benefits. In time 

 of war, I think it will be ably demonstrated, the benefits accruing 

 from this program of oceanographic research would be incalculable. 

 They could well spell the difference between defeat or victory, between 

 death or survival. In times of peace, in my opinion, the returns from 

 such an investment in scientific knowledge will many times repay the 

 anticipated expenditure. 



There came to my desk today a thick book titled "Marine Boring 

 and Fouling Organisms," edited by Dr. Ray, one of our prospective 

 witnesses. 



In this book I read the surprising statement that marine animals 

 that burrow into piles, floats, wooden drydocks and sliips' bottoms 

 cause more than half a billion dollars damage annually in the United 

 States alone, a considerabl« amount of this to Navy ships and installa- 

 tions. Marine biologists are working on the problem. 



Seaborn hurricanes, a combined oceanographic-meteorological prob- 

 lem of gTeat magnitude caused damage estimated by the Weather 

 Bureau at $2,837 million to coastal property of the United States 

 between 1915 and 1955, and during the past 4 years caused damage 

 aggregating $205 million despite improved warning service. Ocea- 

 nographers are learning much about the phenomena that causes these 

 disastrous hurricanes. This promises much for commerce and coastal 

 enterprises. 



With mounting population and demand for protein-rich fisheries 

 products our domestic catch is dropping while that of Soviet Russia 

 has doubled in the past 6 years. American canned salmon production 

 has fallen from 207 million pounds in 1950 to only 118 million pounds 

 in 1959. The tuna catch of 399 million pounds in 1950 was down ta 

 285 million pounds last year. Ground fish dropped from 187 million 

 pounds in 1950 to 91 million in 1959, or less than half that 10 years 



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