50 MARINE SCIENCE 



Mr. IsELiN. I don't know about this. 



Senator Lausche. Do you know about it, Dr. Schaef er ? 



Mr. ScHAEFER. Yes, sir, we have been extracting magnesium from 

 sea water both in California and also I believe it is in Freeport, Tex., 

 for quite a number of years. Actually I don't think the Russians are 

 using this technique because of terrestrial sources. Magnesium is one 

 thing we don't have much of from other sources and we take it out of 

 the sea. It is a well known technique, however, and can be done any- 

 where in the world. 



As far as these mineral deposits on the sea floor are concerned, no 

 one has started exploiting them as yet. In fact, it was only during 

 the International Geophysical Year and some of the expeditions since 

 then that there have been discovered deposits of minerals that are 

 sufficiently rich so that it looks as if feasible engineering techniques 

 can be developed to recover them. Expect that we will be mining 

 them within the next 5 or 6 years. 



Senator Lausche. N'ow, I would like to ask this further question : 

 They started later than we did and it is for that cause that they are 

 in back of us, from the standpoint of sophistication. 



Are they making progress now indicating that they are catching 

 up? 



Mr. IsELiN. They are catching up quite rapidly in some areas. 

 For example, in the geophysical techniques, and they are very good at 

 seismology and so on. Their main interest, as you can see in reading 

 their papers, seems to be in biology. 



_ Senator Lausche. In both physics and seismology they have shown 

 signs of progress. Now, what are some of the other fields in which 

 they have not ? 



Mr. IsELiN. In the classical field of physical oceanography — that is, 

 the understanding of the movements of the water and variability of 

 these movements and learning how to predict these movements, there 

 is very little evidence in their literature that they are even beginning 

 this problem. They will begin on it but their first major effort was 

 to train a large number of people and the ships they are using, they 

 are using in a rather routine way as part of a schooling system to 

 build up a stockpile of people familiar with the marine sciences. 



Mr. ScHAEEER. Mr. Chairman, if I could interpolate one remark 

 with respect to marine biology and fisheries so that you won't get a 

 wrong impression, actually the Russians have been doing rather ad- 

 vanced work on marine biology and particularly oceanography in 

 support of fisheries development for about as long as we have. 



In fact, they had a three- vessel expedition working in the Bering 

 Sea in 1935 and 1936. They have made a thorough survey there of the 

 fisheries and the currents and the types of bottom and so on and in 

 the fisheries resource development field their work is every bit as good 

 as ours and in some cases it is advanced. 



For example, one of their submarines, the Severyanka, has been 

 converted into a machine with windows in it and sampling devices to 

 study the upper reaches of the ocean, particularly in relation to the 

 distribution of the herring and other fish in the North Atlantic. 

 They have made some interesting discoveries with the submarine. 

 This is one field where they are at least abreast of us. 



Senator Lausche. From an applied standpoint, have they made 

 advances in excess of ours, if at all ? 



