MARINE SCIENCE 137 



its objectives. Because of the hearings scheduled on this bill before your 

 committee on April 20 and 21, we should like to reaflarm our original report, and 

 request that it be read into the minutes of the committee meeting. Further- 

 more, we request that Dr. Bostwick H. Ketchum, Woods Hole Oceanographic 

 Institution, be invited to appear at your committee hearings to present testi- 

 mony on behalf of this AIBS committee. 



We wish to stress particularly our opinions concerning the support of basic 

 biological research in oceanography, as well as our stand on the specific au- 

 thorization for two major open-sea tests of radiological contamination at sea. 

 With respect to the support of basic biological research in oceanography we 

 stand firm in our belief that those Federal agencies now having the prime respon- 

 sibilities for providing basic research funds to the nation's scientists in this 

 broad field are adequate, and suitable. Moreover, they have the full confidence 

 of the scientific community. However, they will need much larger budgets to 

 expand such research significantly. We believe, also, that the Bureau of Com- 

 mercial Fisheries should suport much more research of a basic nature, especially 

 within its own organization, to carry out effectively its mission of developing 

 and conserving the nation's renewable aquatic natural resources. 



To accomplish the Bureau's objectives substantially more funds than they 

 now receive must be made availabel to it, but the recommended allotment of 

 funds in S. 2692 to this agency and to the National Science Foundation, the 

 agency which should administer the major share of basic research funds in all 

 fields of oceanography, is disproportionate. We do not imply that the allot- 

 ment specified for the Bureau is necessarily too large, for this amount will 

 have to be adjudicated in relation to their mission established by law ; but 

 we believe that the amount allotted to the National Science Foundation must 

 proportionately be greater because of its broader responsibilities in support of 

 basic research in all aspects of the aquatic sciences. 



In regard to the proposed open-sea tests of radiological contamination we 

 stand firmly behind our earlier opinion that the authorization of "* * * two 

 major open-sea tests of radiological contamination at sea, its effects on marine 

 life, and its potential effects on humanity" is scientifically unsound, and that 

 the justification for them, based on the stated biological purposes, is premature. 

 We take this view because it seems unwise at the present time to release 

 large amounts of radioactive isotopes (from any source) directly into the sea, 

 because so little data from radiological surveys of organisms from contaminated 

 areas can be correlated with results from controlled laboratory experiments. 

 This means that at this time there is no way to predict the minimum and maxi- 

 mum quantities of any radioactive element which might be accumulated by 

 any single organism or group of organisms, notwithstanding the fact that such 

 predictions would have to be extrapolated and the errors compounded several 

 times from the lowest level of life in the sea up the food chains to reach the 

 higher levels of life used directly by man as food. 



If such open-sea tests are experimental, as we understand their implications, 

 then the experiments must be devised to test assumption based on theoretical 

 or experimental bases. Controlled laboratory experiments designed to elucidate 

 the fate of radioactive substances released into marine environments have not 

 yet been sufficiently extensive or intensive to present satisfactory evidence upon 

 which to carry oiTt open-sea experiments and interpretations thereof. 

 Sincerely yours, 



Robert W. Hiatt, 

 Chmrman, AIBS Committee on Hydrohiology. 

 AIBS Committee on Hydrobiology 

 R. Bolin, Stanford University. 

 Theodore H. Bullock, University of California. 

 Arthur D. Hasler, University of Wisconsin. 

 J. Hedgpeth, College of Pacific. 

 Robert W. Hiatt, University of Hawaii. 



Bostwick H. Ketchum, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

 Charles E. Lane, University of Miami Marine Laboratory. 

 Dixy Lee Ray, University of Washington. 

 William E. Schevill, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

 Cornells B. van Niel, Stanford University. 

 Talbot H. Waterman, Tale University. 



