NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
requires similar study to reinforce public confi- 
dence in the safety of such operations. 
The Atomic Energy Commission plans not only 
to expand its already extensive monitoring efforts 
at test sites, in the vicinity of stationary reactor 
sites on land, and at the places where wastes are 
disposed of at sea, but also plans greatly to ex- 
pand its research effort on the effect of nuclides 
in Ocean water in general. It expects to spend 
about $68 million over the decade and will be 
assisted by the Navy, the Coast Guard, the Bureau 
of Commercial Fisheries, and the Public Health 
Service in one or another aspect of its work. 
Nearly half of these funds will go to support 
basic research. During the period of this report, 
our efforts at inventorying and understanding the 
biological wealth of the world ocean will account 
for 19 percent of the total budget; over half of 
this will be spent for basic research. A portion of 
this work has implications primarily for the U.S. 
public, as discussed in the next section. 
D. Managing Resources in Domestic Waters 
1. SAFEGUARDING PUBLIC HEALTH 
The streams and rivers into which man pours 
his industrial waste and sewage in increasing con- 
centrations as they flow through the countryside 
eventually reach the broad estuaries where they 
slowly mix with the sea. Although water, both 
fresh and salt, contains numerous chemicals and 
organisms capable of reducing noxious substances 
to harmless ones, and although dilution itself is 
of tremendous value, local concentrations of dan- 
gerous toxicity have always been a potential hazard, 
the vagaries of currents and flow being what they 
are. The ability of some organisms used for food 
by man to tolerate and store poisons at levels of 
concentration serious or even lethal to man is well- 
known. Shellfish are particularly important, being 
susceptible as well to toxic substances not produced 
by man. Oceanographic studies concerned with 
the effects on estuarine and inshore waters from 
the disposal of municipal and industrial wastes 
have been conducted for years by the Public Health 
Service and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 
and where they concern inshore marine foods this 
work is done in close cooperation with the states. 
These traditional programs have recently as- 
sumed much greater importance due to the vast 
increase of population, and the consequent rising 
12 
445 
concentrations of “normal” wastes in our streams 
and estuaries, and to the appearance of new and 
highly resistant chemical wastes produced by 
modern technology. Radioactive wastes discharged 
by atomic plants are the first of the new long- 
lived poisons which come to mind, but many other 
less familiar chemical products may be even more 
hazardous. Among these are alkylbenzene sul- 
fonates (ABS), DDT, Aldrin, Parathion, Lindane, 
and a variety of nitrogen compounds. As a conse- 
quence, not only has the Atomic Energy Commis- 
sion undertaken an increasing program in ocea- 
nographic research but the programs of the 
agencies traditionally concerned with oceanog- 
raphy have also expanded their research in marine 
pollution. 
In 1963, the goal of safeguarding health in 
relation to seaside pollution accounted for about 
four percent of our oceanographic budget. Over 
the decade ahead it is likely to remain about the 
same, totaling about $95 million. 
2. CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES 
HELD IN COMMON 
In 1947, the Supreme Court decided that the 
Federal Government and not the State of Calif- 
ornia had title to the submerged lands off the 
coasts of the United States. This decision and the 
two that quickly followed against Louisiana and 
Texas ended the uncertainty over rights which 
had hampered the oil industry in its efforts to 
exploit these areas. 
Since then the oil companies have invested 
approximately $3.5 billion in exploratory drill- 
ings along the continental shelves. Oil reserves 
offshore are far from being estimated. Their 
studies have largely been confined to areas of 
probable oil occurrence. 
The mineral resources of the sea come next to 
mind. Although the sea contains dissolved min- 
erals in nearly astronomical quantities, their 
dilution is so extreme that extraction is both 
difficult and expensive. Furthermore, most can 
be found in adequate amounts and with sufficient 
ease on land. Consequently, with the exception of 
a few minerals such as bromine and magnesium, 
neither industry nor the Federal Government has 
taken much interest in developing oceanic sources. 
Now, however, the picture is beginning to change. 
Large deposits of nodules rich in manganese, 
nickel, and cobalt, which were stumbled across 
