66 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
The proposal and capability file estabiished for the Panel by the National 
Oceanographic Data Center has been increasing steadily in size. Lists of titles 
of proposals in this privileged file are distributed semiannually to Panel members 
and to others in the Federal Government who need this information. The file 
has recently been transferred to the Navy Oceanographic Instrumentation Cen- 
ter. In the future a copy of each proposal sent to the Federal Government on 
oceanographic instrumentation will be forwarded to that office. 
This file, now comprising some 3800-odd proposals, provides valuable source 
information for Federal administrators and engineers who are embarking on 
new programs, and who heed to locate companies with specific and highly spe- 
cialized capabilities. As it now exists, this file is quite useful; when it is fully 
implemented it will be a major factor in reducing redundancy in the development 
of oceanographic instruments and will provide a coordinated and easily accessible 
source of information on the vast array of engineering skill and potential of 
American industry. 
The exchange of useful oceanographic data between agencies and nations in 
our international programs is dependent upon the standardization of equipment. 
The Navy Oceanographic Instrumentation Center has an established procedure 
for testing and calibrating precision deep sea reversing thermometers and is 
performing this service for its own scientists and those of the Bureau of Com- 
mnercial Fisheries, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Coast Guard, Naval Research 
Laboratory, and the Lamont Geological Observatory (Columbia University). 
The calibration of salinometers is now being undertaken for the Coast Guard. 
The Navy Oceanographic Office’s instrument specifications are being used by 
other agencies for procurement purposes. 
The ever-increasing number of instances of cooperation and integration of 
efforts by member agencies is considered a significant accomplishment of this 
Panel. Some examples follow : 
1. In the development of its acoustic flowmeter the Coast and Geodetic Survey 
used the test facilities of the Coastal Engineering Research Center of the Army 
Engineers. During these tests CERC not only materially assisted the Coast and 
Geodetic Service in an experimental project, but became acquainted with a 
system of potential value in their studies of erosion and its effect on breakwaters 
and jetties. This very sensitive device can measure minor current fluctuations 
in turbulent areas, thus permitting a better understanding of the eroding ten- 
dencies of currents along our shores and in our harbors. 
2. The Public Health Service is now represented on our Panel. With other 
member agencies, it undertook a joint review of available instruments to measure 
and analyze currents. The knowledge thus gained permitted the undertaking 
of a Significant study on the dispersion of pollution by deep currents in Lake 
Michigan. 
3. Coast Guard’s recent cooperative participation in oceanography has been 
largely stimulated by its membership in ICO. Some examples related to the 
work of this Panel include: Establishment and support of meteorological buoys 
in. the. Gulf of Mexico for the Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Naval Weapons, 
use of several ocean station ships for special studies by the staff of the Anti- 
submarine Weapons Environmental Prediction System (ASWEPS) of the Naval 
Oceanographic Office, and evaluation of an electronic bathythermograph and a 
sonie wave height sensor in cooperation with the same Office. 
4. A recent project, illustrative of the type of informal cooperation encouraged 
by the Panel, is the development of the expendable bathythermograph. This type 
of device is cast over the side of a moving vessel and sends back signals from 
which ean be derived a plot of temperature against depth. The need for such 
a device was included in one of the lists of required instruments in the pro- 
ceedings of the Panel’s instrumentation symposium. As a result, companies 
undertook its development with their own funds. 
By the end of the next fiscal year, operational evaluations of these expendable 
BT’s will have been completed by the Navy Oceanographic Instrumentation 
Center, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, the Bureau of Ships, and possibly 
by the Coast and Geodetie Survey. Although the requirements of each of these 
agencies are slightly different, it is hoped they can be met by one instrument 
which can be easily and cheaply produced. If so, a substantial advance will 
have been made over the conventional bathythermograph which has been serving 
the oceanographic community unchanged for the past 27 years. 
The end point of this development will be an automatic system than can func- 
tion from all types of oceanographic platforms: buoys, ships, even aircraft. 
