NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 5; 
Mr. Bauer. What is the present status of security classification of 
ocean surveys ? 
Dr. Waxetin. I’m sorry I do not have that information with me. 
I will be happy to send it to you as soon as I return to my office. 
Mr. Bauer. Doctor, while you gather that information, would you 
also supply for the record a résumé on in-house versus sponsored 
oceanographic research ? 
Dr. Waxetin. I will be happy to include this résumé along with 
the other request. 
(The following information was subsequently received for the 
record :) 
PAST AND PRESENT STATUS OF SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF OCEANIC SOUNDINGS 
Prior to 1942 all oceanic soundings were incorporated on unclassified charts, 
and sent to the International Hydrographic Bureau. 
The need for protection of ship movements, plus protection of data which could 
be used by enemy submarines, resulted in the classification of oceanic soundings, 
during the war years. In February 1951 the classification of these secret and 
confidential soundings was reduced to restricted. When the restricted category 
was eliminated in 1952, these soundings were upgraded to confidential. 
Since then, restrictions have been progressively relaxed. In 1958, soundings 
in the Antarctic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean were declassified. In other 
areas, only depths greater than 300 fathoms were classified. In 1959, those in 
the Southern Hemisphere south of latitude 30° south were additionally declassi- 
fied. 
In mid-1959, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Oceanography 
recommended that ‘all oceanographic information, including oceanie soundings 
and other survey information be unclassified, with the exception of certain data 
collected in strategic regions or by clandestine means.” This was amplified to 
mean that soundings taken with no better than celestial or loran A accuracy, 
or on sounding lines spaced more than 10 miles apart, would be unclassified. 
Also to be unclassified were all detailed surveys made by the PDR (precision 
depth recorder), all positions of sea-mounts, all bathymetric charts at scales 
smaller than 1 :2,000,000, all soundings south of 20° south latitude, and the whole 
Indian Ocean. 
The Navy in early 1960 concurred in part with the NASCO group recommenda- 
tions, and it was decided that soundings spaced closer than 10 miles, precisely 
positioned (loran C or equivalent) would be classified. The Hydrographer was 
directed to sanitize such data for release at 10-mile spacing. 
In early 1962 this was further relaxed to classify only precision soundings 
at closer than 5-mile line interval. This resulted in a declassification of a large 
quantity of the stock of classified soundings. These ground-rules are still in 
force. This policy is considered adequate and reasonable for the present, but is 
certainly not unchangeable. It has, as noted in the foregoing, been arrived at 
through an evolutionary process, and this will doubtless continue. It is the 
Navy’s policy to cooperate in every way with other agencies and scientists who 
desire data, consistent with the current dictates of military security. 
BALANCE OF OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH EFFORT IN THE UNITED STATES 
During the formative years (fiscal years 1960-63) of the national oceano- 
graphic program, the Interagency Committee on Oceanography (ICO) was ad- 
vised by the National Academy of Sciences, through its committee on oceanog- 
raphy (NASCO),* that a productive national program of oceanography re- 
quired, more than any other element, a significant growth in its basic research 
sector. This research need referred primarily to the university laboratories, 
who felt that: (a) that they had achieved a potential of facilities which would 
allow modest acceleration in their research effort: (0) that the basic knowledge, 
which had been acquired by that time, indicated numerous and exciting possibil- 
ities for further good and productive research: and (c) that from all points of 
1 National Academy of Sciences publication, Oceanography, 1960-70. 
