NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
routes, with improvements both in comfort and 
economy. It is likely to be many years before the 
quality of the fleet as a whole is much affected. 
In this context, proposals regularly appear for 
consideration of a submarine tanker, or even a 
submarine cargo ship. It is true that, in principle, 
the absence of wave-making resistance would per- 
mit very large submarines to attain speeds suff- 
ciently high to cut crossing times to the point 
where the high initial costs might be more quickly 
amortized than is the case in surface ships. But the 
payoff is uncertain and the date for this develop- 
ment is not felt to be near. 
Finally, research continues on techniques to 
minimize the fouling of ship hulls by barnacles 
and marine organisms, and the associated hull 
roughness that reduces ship speed and increases 
propulsion costs. 
F. Recreation Industry 
Seagoing and seaside recreation has also within 
the last few years become a major industry. Swim- 
ming and bathing have traditionally been the most 
popular recreational uses of the sea, and in terms 
of the number of people who patronize our 
beaches and shore areas they still are. In terms 
of dollars spent in sports, however, they are far 
outclassed by the pleasure craft lovers. Something 
over 37 million Americans spent about $2.5 billion 
last year on boats and boating. The size of the 
pleasure fleet is now approximately 7-1/2 million 
pleasure boats, on inland and coastal waters—an 
increase of 500 percent over 1958; sport fishing in 
offshore waters has passed the half billion dollar a 
year mark. 
The states and Federal Government are hard 
pressed to acquire or even preserve beach and 
shoreline recreation areas to meet the increasing 
demands. Commercial and private interests are 
fast acquiring choice areas and erosion is affecting 
many others. In recognition of the urgency of the 
situation, the 87th Congress authorized the estab- 
lishment of three national seashores, one on Cape 
Cod, one at Point Reyes in California, and one on 
Padre Island in Texas, together totaling 127,000 
acres. 
Two underwater nature trails have been devel- 
oped in the Virgin Islands by the National Park 
Service to meet the growing demand for this type 
of facility, and a large area called the Key Largo 
Coral Reef Preserve has been set aside adjacent to 
Florida’s Pennecamp State Park. 
22 
455 
The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife 
spends nearly $15 million annually on behalf of 
sport fishermen, though only a small portion of 
this (less than 2 percent in 1963) is in oceanography. 
The rising trafic of inexperienced pleasure 
boaters is creating a hazard to themselves and 
others, raising questions about how to help assure 
their safety. For example, there were over 3000 
recreational boating accidents reported in 1961 
in which over $4 million in damage was done, 1100 
lives were lost, and over 1000 persons injured. 
Nearly 300 of the fatalities resulted from capsiz- 
ings in which weather or high seas was presumably 
a factor, so that improved wave and storm warn- 
ings might be of some help. Marine biological 
research would also foster understanding of “red 
tides,” swarms of biological organisms that kill 
fish and inundate and make a seashore tempo- 
rarily unusable. 
It is clear that the growing size of the recreation 
industry is a measure of the rising value of seaside 
and ocean-going recreation to the general public 
and of the increased federal responsibility to con- 
serve it for the benefit of all. 
G. Summary 
Oceanographic scientists and people in the fish- 
ing, shipping, oil, mining, and recreation indus- 
tries constitute groups each benefiting in some 
special way from oceanographic knowledge. One 
of these groups, the scientists, is almost wholly 
dependent on government support of oceanog- 
raphy for its livelihood. A second, fishing, cannot 
expect to compete in the modern world without 
the benefit of government supported oceanog- 
raphy. The oil industry owes a great deal of its 
recent expansion to marine geology but has ob- 
tained much of it privately. Shipping, a subsi- 
dized industry, may in the future benefit margin- 
ally if it takes advantage of certain oceanographic 
services such as wave forecasting. Mining is de- 
terred from expanding into the sea by high risks 
and costs and, being satisfied with terrestrial re- 
sources, looks to government to underwrite the 
risk of marine exploration. The recreation indus- 
try is flourishing but the greatly increased recre- 
ation-seeking public is endangering its own recre- 
ation resources by overcrowding. Its full enjoy- 
ment of the sea can probably be assured only by 
government action to conserve this valuable 
resource. ' 
