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Mankind looks to the oceans for new resources and food for the 

 future, as a medium of transportation and recreation, and as a key to 

 our ability to predict the weather more accurately. This will require 

 new, or improved, or expanded marine environmental services. Our 

 observational information about the oceans today is meager. This 

 critical deficiency must be eliminated. We must understand more fully 

 the interactions between atmosphere and ocean, and the ocean and the 

 earth so that better prediction techniques for both sea and air may be 

 developed. We need faster dissemination of warnings and forecasts 

 to mariners on the high seas, on the Continental Shelf and to coastal 

 dwellers. We need more accurate and more extensive maps and charts 

 of the ocean bottom and its characteristics. We hope to improve our 

 ocean and weather prediction by obtaining more coastal and ship re- 

 ports, by using new observing devices such as satellites and buoys. We 

 expect gradually to begin to issue routine sea St ate and sea surface tem- 

 perature forecasts prepared by our National Meteorological Center. 

 We are planning an estuarine flushing prediction service to combat 

 pollution and enhance seashore use. Marine forecast centers are 

 planned for San Francisco and Washington — to be manned by meteor- 

 ologists trained in physical oceanography. I have already spoken of 

 the establishment of continuous VHF-FM marine weather transmit- 

 ters, which will serve 8 million boatsmen. Facsimile and marine radio- 

 telephone broadcasts will help insure timely delivery of our predic- 

 tions and warnings. 



In the area of mapping and charting, we have commenced a pro- 

 gram to make maximum use of our existing data to provide topo- 

 graphic maps of the sea floor. An important start has been made with 

 issuance of such charts for the Aleutian Island area and California 

 coastal waters. We need contour maps of coastal areas susceptible to 

 flooding from storm surge. An improved and automated data col- 

 lection and processing system for mapping and charting is under 

 development. 



ESSA also plans a project on mean low-water mapping for estab- 

 lishment of coastal baselines along the outer coasts of the United 

 States and its possessions. Baselines mapping is needed for the estab- 

 lishment of accurate boundaries seaward, which are of prime im- 

 portance to the development of Continental Shelf resources. 



However, the limitations which bind us cannot be removed fully 

 unless our understanding of the global ocean is improved far beyond 

 its present state. 



RESEARCH 



The key to this improvement lies in research. 



The execution of our research program involves several separate but 

 related requirements : 



To measure and understand large- and small-scale physical and 

 dynamic processes in the ocean, atmosphere, and solid earth. 



To measure and understand the boundary process of the ocean- 

 atmosphere interface and to build a physical theory of its 

 fluctuations. 



To measure and understand the ocean floors, continental mar- 

 gins, crust and mantle of the ocean basins, and interactions be- 

 tween solid and fluid media. 



