NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for a num- 
ber of years and this work will continue. 
Many agencies are contemplating plans based 
on the use of anchored buoy stations in rather 
large networks within the next few years. Before 
these plans are executed, three important inter- 
im steps should be taken. First, the development 
program should be carried to the point where 
sensors are reliably capable of long unattended 
operation and the buoy can be counted on to hold 
its moorings and transmit significant amounts of 
information over the required distances. No buoys 
have these characteristics at present and much 
more expensive development is required. Second, 
once such buoys are available, none should be in- 
stalled until the time space data sampling require- 
ments are thoroughly worked out. These require- 
ments depend on the scientific question being 
asked, the process to be studied, and the scale 
characteristics of other processes also capable of 
producing sensor responses appearing as “noise” 
in the data record. The noise must not obscure the 
signal. Finally, efforts under way at the interna- 
tional level to establish legal and operational con- 
ventions must be completed. 
Figure 4 shows the relative effort contributed to 
the instrumentation program by the various agen- 
cies. The Navy expects to carry three-fifths of the 
planned total of $103 million, reflecting a massive 
effort to expedite solutions of problems of pack- 
aging sensing-recording-processing systems, to 
perfect deep diving exploration vehicles, and to 
overcome sound attenuation. The remaining two- 
fifths will be fairly evenly divided among the Bu- 
reau of Commercial Fisheries, Geological Survey, 
Bureau of Mines, Coast Guard, Weather Bureau, 
and the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Particular 
efforts are therefore being made to assure thor- 
ough exchange of information among the agencies 
concerned by the establishment of a central file 
of instrumentation data at the National Oceano- 
graphic Data Center, the publication ofan encyclo- 
pedia of oceanographic instruments, and the joint 
agency use of the Navy’s Oceanographic Instru- 
mentation Center at the Navy Yard Annex in 
Washington, D.C. 
H. Manpower 
A final capability on which all else depends is an 
adequate corps of trained, imaginative, and skillful 
34 
467 
scientists. No other problem in basic oceanography 
currently warrants greater attention than the man- 
power problem, and this in spite of the fact that 
the ranks of oceanographers are expected to con- 
tinue to grow at a rate moderately in excess of the 
national average for scientists as a whole. This 
projected growth in oceanography of about ten 
percent where the national increase in all types 
of scientists has averaged about seven percent is 
the basis for the programs now planned in pursuit 
of the national goals in oceanography. Meeting 
these requirements is expected to result from the 
continued transfer of scientists from other basic 
fields such as physics, geology, chemistry, biology, 
mathematics, and engineering since fewer than 
100 degrees in oceanography are granted each 
year. The greatest educational shortages are pro- 
jected to lie in the areas of physical and meteoro- 
logical oceanography, although systematic biolo- 
gists, marine geophysicists, and geochemists are 
also scarce. Other types of marine biologists and 
geologists are currently being trained at an ade- 
quate rate. Two attacks on the problem currently 
being mounted involve motivation at lower aca- 
demic levels and increased application of training 
grants. 
In one respect, the large number of transfers 
from other fields is desirable. It provides a cross- 
fertilization of ideas which is particularly valuable 
in oceanography where many of the processes of 
greatest interest are best dealt with from a multi- 
disciplinary point of view. As oceanographic fron- 
tiers are pushed back, more and more specialized 
knowledge in an increasing variety of technologies 
and fields of knowledge is required to help solve 
the novel problems which keep turning up, and to 
devise new “tactics” to surmount unprecedented 
difficulties. 
On the other hand, the “strategic” approach to 
oceanographic knowledge to assure its advance 
over a broad front can hardly be certain without 
the creative activity of a large number of people 
broadly trained and widely experienced in ocea- 
nography itself. 
In the light of this situation, the direct support 
provided by the National Science Foundation, and 
the Departments of Interior and HEW for fellow- 
ships and training grants in oceanography might 
seem small, especially since the ten-year projection 
shows little increase over the period. However, the 
problem is strongly cyclic and self-limiting. Uni- 
