NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 709 
come to attention because the routine data gathering has brought out problems. 
So it is not always easy to separate these functions. A survey of fishery areas 
in the mid Pacific revealed the Cromwell Current or equatorial undercurrent run- 
ning against the grain, so to speak, just under the equator from west to east. 
An immediate result of this discovery has been not only intensified study of the 
oceanic region involved, but a lively reappraisal of basic oceanographic theory, 
since it did not have ae RL for this observed phenomenon. The inten- 
Sive, repeated surveys off the California coast, set in motion by the decline of 
the sardine, have Descente to light oceanic fluctuations still not adequately ex- 
plained, and provided data for a new and critical approach to the organization 
of groups of planktonic or floating organisms. We even have the glimmer of an 
idea of what may have happened to the sardines, but cannot say confidently that 
the "average" or "normal" conditions of the waters along the California coast 
are conditions of sardine abundance or sardine scarcity. It may take twenty five 
years of surveys and data to get an answer to that question. 
What oceanography should do, at least in this country, has been considered 
by a number of national committees. In fact, from its beginning oceanography has 
been organized by committees. A committee of the Royal Society determined the 
course and scope of the Challenger Expedition that explored the oceans from 1872 
to 1876. The oldest committee that still functions is known as the Conseil Inter- 
nationale pour L'exploration de la Mer, a committee of representatives from 
various countries of northern Europe, including the Soviet Union -- Russian 
scientists were among the charter members in 1901. It has confined most of its 
interest to the North Sea and the North Atlantic, with emphasis on fisheries 
problems. It is now more familiarly known as ICES, from its English title, 
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. 
In the United States the course of oceanography has been charted -- or should 
one say plotted -~- by two successive committees of the National Academy of Sciences. 
The first of these committees flourished in the decade 1927-37. As a result of 
its deliverations and reports, Scripps Institution was started on its way as a 
major center of oceanographic research and new establishment was recommended for 
the Atlantic Coast. Accordingly Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (not to be 
confused with the much older Marine Biological Laboratory there) was founded in 
1931. At the present time there are four research establishments at Woods Hole, 
employing in all hundreds of people. It is a town whose chief industry is science. 
And tourists in summer time -- scientific and otherwise. 
The present committee on Oceanography of the National Academy, familiarly 
known as NASCO, was established in 1957, and is responsible for much of the 
stimulus that has prompted Congress and the various granting and contracting agen- 
cies of the Federal Government to support oceanography. 
ICES and NASCO are not the only committees. There is a veritable galaxy of 
committees, both international and in each maritime country. Attempts to coordi- 
nate oceanographic effort in the United States, at least in the Federal bureaus, 
are made through ICO, the Interagency Committee on Oceanography, not to be con- 
fused with I0C, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and SCOR, the 
special Committee on Oceanic Research. Both of the latter are part of UNESCO. 
A recent publication of the United Nations lists some )5 committees involved in 
one way or another in oceanography. In spite of all the multiplicity, there is 
a sort of oceanography establishment. The same eminent individuals serve on 
several committees and shift about in a sort of game of musical chairs from one 
committe. meeting to another. Now and then our committees seem to get a bit 
