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NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
Chapter VI 
THE INTERNATIONAL SETTING 
Many of the considerations which have led the 
United States to its recently intensified interest in 
the sea have similarly motivated other nations as 
well, and in many cases for much longer. As each 
has sought to learn more about the sea, it has 
quickly come to realize that the sea is very large 
and its own unaided efforts very small. As far 
back as 1899, a conviction that effective explora- 
tion of the sea based on sound scientific principles 
demanded international cooperation led to the 
formation of the International Council for the 
Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Established by 
eight nations* to conduct a joint exploration of 
the North Atlantic, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, 
and the adjacent waters, the ICES raised and 
tentatively settled such important issues as the 
standardizing of techniques and instruments and 
the exchange of data. 
The International Geophysical Year is the most 
recent major manifestation of the tradition of in- 
ternational cooperation in scientific exploration of 
the oceans. It was both the result and the cause of 
a great number of international organizations for 
scientific cooperation, both governmental and 
private. UNESCO, which had sponsored the devel- 
opment of many intergovernmental associations, 
established the Intergovernmental Oceanographic 
Commission (IOC), in 1960, with a membership 
list of 40 countries, including the United States. 
The IOC held its First Session in October 1961, 
with attendees from most member countries and 
from many of the 26 international scientific organ- 
izations which showed an interest in oceanographic 
problems. Two other United Nations bodies, the 
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the 
World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and 
one nongovernmental organization, the Scientific 
Committee on Oceanographic Research (SCOR) 
of the International Council of Scientific Unions, 
were the three most closely identified with the 
1OC’s purpose and have maintained close working 
relationships with it ever since. 
The IOC's Second Session in September 1962 
added four more nations to its membership list 
*Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, 
Russia, and Sweden. 
39 
and extended its already long list of proposed 
projects for international cooperation. It assumed 
coordinating’ responsibility for the International 
Indian Ocean Expedition, originally organized 
and coordinated by SCOR, with SCOR continuing 
to act in an advisory capacity. It agreed to under- 
take the International Cooperative Investigations 
of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean, as suggested by 
the United States, and is actively making plans to 
start two closely related projects, both suggested 
by the USSR. These are a standard section pro- 
gram to’ study time changes in characteristics of 
the oceans and a North Atlantic expedition for 
studying fields of currents by dynamic techniques. 
In addition, it concerns itself with the perennial 
questions of standardization, intercalibration, and 
the exchange of data as well as some of the more 
particularly modern problems such as the legal 
status of fixed buoys, frequency allocation for 
telemetering and other communications, and the 
availability of new aids to navigation such as Loran 
C and the Transit satellite system under develop- 
ment by the United States. 
Not the least important aspect of such activities 
is the opportunity they provide for scientists and 
technicians from nations without research ships 
and facilities of their own to participate and to 
further their own training while contributing to 
the collection of knowledge which is itself of mu- 
tual benefit. 
The United States, with 11 ships already com- 
mitted to the Indian Ocean Expedition and five 
more to the Tropical Atlantic Expedition, plans 
to put somewhere between $70 million and $90 
million into such cooperative programs during 
the coming decade. The Interagency Committee 
on Oceanography, at the request of the State 
Department, is the United States point of contact 
for activities related to the IOC. United States 
participation in these programs is based on re- 
quirements which we would otherwise have to pur- 
sue alone. By joining our efforts with those of 
other nations with similar needs, we not only 
foster friendships and common interests among 
the collaborators, but greatly increase the scien- 
tific benefit which we, like the other participants, 
realize for the effort which each has expended. 
It is not possible to determine with any great 
accuracy the present size and scope of specific 
