NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 
UNITED STATES NAVY 
Office of Naval Research: $2,142,000 
Contracts and grants will continue to support 
research concerned with fouling by marine organ- 
isms, to protect swimmers and survivors of ship 
sinkings from attacks by poisonous or carnivorous 
marine animals, to understand effects of biological 
organisms on sound propagation, to predict and 
control bioluminescence, to understand the me- 
chanics of fish propulsion, and to understand marine 
animal communication. 
A new program on ship fouling involving other 
ICO bureaus and scientists from many foreign 
countries will be undertaken. Samples of test 
panels which have been subjected to fouling in dif- 
ferent areas of the oceans are to be shipped to a 
single laboratory within the United States where 
the fouling organisms will be identified. The pres- 
ent studies which are confined primarily to fouling 
in shallow water will be extended to fouling in 
the deep oceans, with particular emphasis placed 
on sessile organisms and acoustically significant 
marine animals. 
Further effort will be directed toward a better 
understanding of primary productivity and stand- 
ing crops of marine organisms as these subjects 
are related to problems of interest to the Navy. 
Efforts will be made to develop computer pro- 
grams for rapid taxonomic and ecological evalua- 
tion of marine organisms. Increased emphasis will 
also be given to the closely related biochemical 
taxonomy and the genetics of marine organisms. 
* * * 
Bureau of Ships: $200,000 
Research conducted by the Navy Electronics 
Laboratory is directed at scattering and attenua- 
tion of underwater sound by plankton and nekton 
and the noises originated by marine organisms. 
Both phenomena may interfere with sonar per- 
formance and complicate submarine detection. 
By using the bathyscaphe TRIESTE, scientists at 
NEL will investigate the biological populations of 
the sea and correlate the observed characteristics 
of marine life with physical and chemical prop- 
erties of the water at various depths. 
During past dives of the TRIESTE, locations 
of the scattering layers and their composition have 
been determined by a surface ship employing 12 
ke echo sounders, while TRIESTE maneuvered 
up and down through the layers. 
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The deep scattering layers in the deep ocean will 
continue to be investigated during FY 1965. Bathy- 
scaphe TRIESTE and surface ships will support 
this effort. Taxonomic studies will be continued 
in FY 1965 in areas of interest. Acoustic cross 
sections will be correlated with the species observed. 
* * * 
Naval Oceanographic Office: $20,000 
NavOceano has made detailed studies of the 
seasonal setting and growth rates of fouling organ- 
isms in coastal waters. Recently, such studies have 
been extended to include the deep water of the 
Tongue of the Ocean near the Bahamas and they 
will be extended to other areas including deep 
water locations. Results have shown a decrease in 
fouling organisms from the surface through the 
euphotic zone, with drifting forms below that 
depth and some boring organisms on the bottom. 
Collections of marine organisms will continue to 
be made on Antarctic oceanographic cruises and 
sent to various universities for study. Also, a study 
of the distribution and ecology of bioluminescent 
forms will continue. 
* * * 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries: $9,050,000 
Research is needed to achieve three major ob- 
jectives vital to the mission of BCF: 1. To obtain 
maximum sustained yields from the sea’s living 
resources; 2. To reduce the cost of locating and 
catching fish to a minimum; and 3. To improve 
basic knowledge of interrelations among the living 
resources and their environment in order to predict 
fluctuations in availability and distribution. 
Explorations off the Columbia River have re- 
cently given evidence that commercial quantities 
of fish and shellfish may occur up to depths of at 
least 3600 feet. As a result of such exploratory 
fishing, commercial operations have started in a 
number of areas on what were unknown or under- 
exploited resources. 
The Bureau will continue to devote considerable 
research effort toward gaining a better under- 
standing of the oceans and to develop reliable 
methods for predicting places and times of fish 
concentration. For example, since 1959, annual 
predictions based on changes in ocean circulation 
have been made for the catch of the Hawaiian 
skipjack fishery. These data are proving to be of 
considerable importance to the fishing industry. 
