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offices of the Department of the Interior, the maritime functions of 
ESSA, the marine functions of the Department of Transportation, in- 
cluding both Coast Guard and Maritime Administration, the coastal 
research and engineering functions of the Army Engineers, and the 
Sea Grant program of the National Science Foundation, and putting 
them all in a single agency, together with the new initiatives for ad- 
vancement of ocean technology, the institutional support of relevant 
university scientific research, the national projects, and the grants to 
the States for coastal zone management. 
I also believe that one thing that wasn’t dealt with by the commis- 
sion’s report that ought to be thought about is transferring the primary 
responsibility for the International Fisheries Commissions from the 
State Department to this new agency. This, however, is contingent on 
some appropriate alignment of the congressional committees, and par- 
ticularly within the Appropriations Committees, with respect to ma- 
rine affairs, because the big problem with the International Fisheries 
Commissions appears to be more in the legislative branch than in the 
executive branch of the Government. 
T sincerely believe that a new agency of this sort might enable us 
to make the rapid strides toward the mastery of the ocean and its uses 
that we have all been concerned with for so many years, and that we 
hope to get on with. 
A companion question, of course, is whether this should be accom- 
plished through putting all of these activities in some existing agency, 
or by establishing a new, independent agency. 
Quite obviously the existing agency of our Government, that would 
be the logical place to center these functions, i is the Department of the 
Interior, since it is essentially our department of natural resources. In- 
deed, if it were possible to slough off the Bureau of Indian Affairs and 
the Office of Trust Ter ritories, and a few other things, and then put 
various natural resources and the environmental functions of other de- 
partments into Interior, it might very well be transformed into the de- 
partment envisaged by Dr. Calhoun. 
However, I don’t see this kind of complex reorganization coming 
about very fast. Also, while it would have some obvious organizational 
advantages, offsetting this would be some disadvantages. One of them 
is that the ‘department itself would remain primarily land oriented. 
And, more important, I believe that an independent ocean agency is 
required so that its mission won’t be subordinated to any other mis- 
sions, so that the Congress can provide a special overview of the ocean 
program apart from existing departmental structures, and so that 
ocean affairs will attain large ] public visibility and draw ‘strong public 
interest and support. 
The second topic I would like to speak to briefly, Mr. Chairman, is 
the matter of freedom of scientific research and exploration of the 
sea. 
Our recent advances, during the last two decades, have created a 
sort of unique paradox. During the last two decades, both in the United 
States and elsewhere, the seagoing scientists have been able to obtain 
a lot of new facilities and equipment and capabilities to investigate the 
ocean on a large scale, to find out a great deal about the resources of 
the sea, and to ‘obtain other knowledge that was formerly beyond their 
capacity. 
