53 



I think that would be unfortunate because the ocean is about the 

 only place left on Earth where truly large-scale biomass production 

 could conceivably be carried out on a noncompetitive basis with 

 man's other needs for space. 



I would like to expand on that, if I might, with just a couple of 

 other points relative to some of the earlier discussion today. I do 

 feel that field experiments are obviously going to be needed in the 

 development of this kind of a technology. 



You can't understand what the problems are going to be until 

 you try it, get your feet wet and make the effort, and these kinds of 

 experiments inevitably are rather large scale and rather expensive. 

 And I think they must be done. 



But I would like to see them done first within some kind of a 

 context of a broad general program studying the potential of 

 marine biomass. This is something that I find lacking. There never 

 has been a defined, broad-based program to look at all of the 

 various potentials. 



The Sargassum that I mentioned. The possibility of the weeds up 

 in the New England area. A friend of mine at the University of 

 Maine tried very hard to get a grant to look at the potential of 

 seaweeds in the large estuaries along the Maine coast just to try to 

 assess the biomass that is present there and was unable to get 

 support to do this. 



I think there are lots of approaches to this that ought to be 

 looked at simultaneously and I don't see anybody worrying about 

 the comprehensive problem as a whole. It seems the program in 

 the Department of Energy for looking at marine biomass, such as it 

 is, seems to have just grown up more or less adventitiously. 



I certainly found out about it by accident. Many other people 

 didn't know of its existence. I think that there should be some 

 effort made to bring together specialists in this field to try to 

 develop a comprehensive plan. 



And the other concern I have is that large-scale studies should be 

 recognized as being exploratory at this stage in the sense that this 

 whole technology is new and we really don't know what the best 

 species are or the best method of drawing them. 



Although these experiments won't necessarily be large, they 

 should not be viewed at the moment as a pilot project demonstrat- 

 ing some tried and true concept because I am afraid if this is the 

 motivation, very quickly people would become disillusioned with 

 the mistakes that will inevitably occur as a result of these early 

 studies. 



Thank you. 



Mr. Studds. Thank you very much, Dr. Ryther. 



Even \vrith my layman's lack of knowledge, expertise, and sophis- 

 tication in these matters, I am, nonetheless, always upset when I 

 hear the Department of Energy on this or any other subject. Now 

 you have made me worry even more than I normally do. 



You started out by summarily dismissing the potential of terres- 

 tial biomass production as opposed to aquatic biomass, and I don't 

 know if you have seen the figure 1 which accompanies the testimo- 

 ny of the Department of Energy earlier today of that minute 

 portion of their budget which goes to this kind of biomass produc- 

 tion at all. 



