NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
437 
Chapter I 
INTRODUCTION 
Three questions have been examined at the out- 
set before proceeding to the plan itself. They 
are: 
Why is this plan needed? 
For whom is it written? 
What is it supposed to do? 
A. Why a Long-Range Plan? 
This plan is needed for two reasons. The first 
is to provide a perspective, both over the field 
of oceanography as a whole and over the time 
period ahead, within which the relationship of 
the highly varied and diverse activities to each 
other and to the overall effort can be seen. The 
second reason is to assure that this overall effort 
is responsive to the national interest. 
Perspective is needed because oceanography, 
always a complex of pure and applied programs 
in a variety of disciplines involving numerous 
institutions, has grown so rapidly during the past 
' five years that it is increasingly difficult for people 
concerned with one aspect of the field to be well- 
informed about work being carried on elsewhere 
without a plan and without the coordination 
afforded by a plan. The danger is that inadvertent 
duplication and waste of effort will occur on the 
one hand and, far more likely, that opportunities 
for joint large-scale efforts which could tackle 
problems beyond the scope of individual agencies 
or laboratories will be overlooked on the other. 
Furthermore, though primary support for ocea- 
nography now comes from the Federal Govern- 
ment it is applied through some 20 separate offices 
and bureaus, each charged with a 1.fferent basic 
mission. Oceanography, though still small com- 
pared to many other programs, has now become 
large enough to have to face up to one of the re- 
quirements associated with size, diversity, and a 
common source of support—the requirement for 
centralized planning. 
Such planning is all the more important in 
terms of making most effective use of research 
resources when considering that oceanography 
is small with respect to some indices of its prac- 
tical importance. The burgeoning world popula- 
tion, particularly in the underdeveloped areas, 
makes the oceans with their huge and inefficiently 
exploited food resources of inevitable and in- 
creasing value to humanity as a whole. Questions 
of how to manage this resource wisely and well 
can only be answered in the international arena, 
since the fish of the sea acknowledge no national 
boundaries. Oceanographic knowledge and un- 
derstanding is essential if valid purpose is to enter 
our approach to such management. 
Other indices of the strategic importance of the 
oceans are becoming ever more clearly recognized. 
The cloak of concealment provided by a medium 
which is virtually opaque to all forms of energy 
except sound is of immense military significance. 
For example, it permits us to deploy the Polaris 
submarine system, a component of our deterrent 
forces which is virtually nonpreemptable, and 
thus to reduce the temptation a would-be agressor 
might otherwise feel to launch a surprise attack 
on our complex of retaliatory weapons systems. 
Further understanding and exploitation of both 
the defensive and offensive potentialities of under- 
water sound transmission and related ocean phe- 
nomena is then a clear military necessity. 
Other aspects of the oceans affecting all or large 
numbers of us in common include the health haz- 
ard posed by pollution from industrial wastes 
such as oil, chemicals, sewage, etc. and from 
radioactive substances; danger to life and property 
from waves and flooding; risk to shipping from 
floating ice, storms and navigational hazards; 
and threats to resources such as the recreational 
value of the seas which should be common prop- 
erty. Again, our programs in these areas must 
reckon with the policies and actions of other 
nations and be motivated by a concern for the 
public good. 
There are, of course, many special groups with- 
in the Nation that are concerned with oceanog- 
raphy in their own behalf, without explicitly 
equating their interest to that of the Nation as a 
whole. Fostering their healthy development, 
subject to normal political, social, and economic 
constraints, is almost a definition of the national 
interest. The fishing industry, the shipping in- 
dustry, mining and oil industries, and in a sense 
the scientific community, are among the groups 
in our society for whom the oceans have a special 
significance. Though the benefits accruing to 
these segments of the Nation through federally 
supported programs in oceanography cannot be 
