259 



Admiral Jones. The Coast Guard is engaged in oceanography in 

 connection with their weather stations and ice patrol operations. The 

 Coast Giiard does some bathometric surveys in deep ocean areas, some 

 ocean station operations and some geophysical and oceanographic in- 

 vestigations. The data obtained is made available through the National 

 Oceanographic Data Center. The exact number of vessels engaged in 

 full-time oceanography is unknown. 



Mr. Lennon. Some "of their ocean station vessels, other than purely 

 oceanography vessels, are also engaged in some degree of oceanog- 

 raphy. 



Admiral Jones. That is correct, sir. 



Mr. Lennon, How many oceanography vessels does the Department 

 of Interior have, even though related to the fisheries? 



Admiral Jones. According to information available to us. Depart- 

 ment of Interior has 19 oceangoing vessels of which 17 are operated by 

 Fish and Wildlife Service. 



Mr. Lennon. Were any or all related to oceanography outside of the 

 general sphere of fisheries, or are they all directly related to fisheries? 



Dr. White. Mr. Chairman, if I could answer that question in this 

 way, which may or may not be satisfactory, operating a vessel at sea 

 is tremendously expensive. That means, whenever one has a vessel at 

 sea for any purpose, whether it be a Coast Guard vessel or ESS A 

 vessel or Interior vessel where the primary mission may be for a pur- 

 pose other than oceanography, it is highly advantageous to make use 

 of that platform in acquiring other kinds of data to be used for other 

 purposes. I would feel that almost all of the vessels dealing with any 

 aspect of marine science or another in our national inventory at one 

 time or another do take additional observations over and above that of 

 its primary mission. This is one way in which we get multiple use out 

 of these ships and acquire data in a very economical manner. 



It w^ould be very difficult to make a specific statement on this, except 

 to say that all vessels out there, and this is true even of merchant ships, 

 where they have many, many platforms at sea, not operated by the 

 Federal Government, which can be used for oceanographic observa- 

 tions and are so used. This is one of the ways that we can gain a lot 

 of oceanographic information at very little cost. 



Mr. Lennon. Thank you very much. Doctor. I wanted to get that 

 on the record because it is not even understood by the members of the 

 Appropriations Committee of this Congress, some of whom have been 

 here as much as 16 years. I wanted to get your statement and the 

 admiral's statement on the record. 



As I indicated, just in the consideration of the appropriation bill 

 in the Independent Offices, this very question came up on the floor 

 and it was not answered adequately, at least to the satisfaction of the 

 members of the Appropriations Committee. 



Counsel, do you have any questions? 



Mr. Drewry. Yes, Mr. Chairman. ^^-, 



Dr. Wliite, what is the present time'^'cle from completion of a 

 survey to publication of a chart based on the survey? In other words, 

 how up to date are your Continental Shelf and other Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey charts ? 



In 1965, 'Admiral Karo testified that the normal cycle was from 1 

 to 2 years, but that with new automated processes it was hoped that 



