833 
ORGANIZING FOR MARINE AFFAIRS 
Dr. Wrens. One major recommendation of the Commission is to 
establish an independent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency 
organized around a unity of the sea, coastal zone, and atmosphere. 
This recommendation arose from an issue that conspicuously presents 
itself simply from the number of different Federal agencies having 
statutory missions in the sea. 
Since 1807, these functions grew independently in response to iso- 
lated needs—to foster safe navigation, maintain naval defenses, collect 
customs, and in recent years, to aid the domestic fishing industry, con- 
trol pollution, create harbors, protect the shoreline. In all cases, the 
common denominator was the sea. 
A coordinating committee on oceanography was organized infor- 
mally in the 1950’s so that the scientists in separate Federal agencies 
could exchange data about the environment, because such informa- 
tion collected for one purpose found multiple applications to other 
missions. 
Mr. Lennon. Right at that point, Dr. Wenk, for identification we 
are talking about the so-called interagency committee, are we not, on 
oceanography ? 
Dr. Wenk. Mr. Chairman, at this stage I am referring to an earlier 
time. 
Mr. Lennon. Earlier than the so-called ad hoc interagency com- 
mittee by about 4 years, wasn’t it ? 
Dr. Wenk. This ran about 4 years before the interagency commit- 
tee was established. The interagency committee on oceanography, 
ICO, was established in May 1959, and it was a committee of the Fed- 
eral Council for Science and Technology, which itself was established 
by Executive order, I believe, in March of 1959. 
But prior to that time there was this purely ad hoc committee. 
Mr. Lennon. Thank you for that explanation. I wanted that in the 
record at this time. 
Dr. Wen. Now, a variety of formal mechanisms were subsequently 
proposed to coordinate programs and prevent duplication as the fund- 
ing for oceanographic research grew. The Federal Council for Science 
and Technology, as you noted, Mr. Chairman, was created by Execu- 
tive order, and its interagency committee on oceanography to deal 
with this problem, so that statutory proposals by the Congress were 
considered unnecessary by the executive branch. 
However, this arrangement was considered inadequate by the Con- 
gress. In 1966, a Vice Presidentially chaired Cabinet-level Council 
was created to advise and assist the President, focused on policy and 
program planning to use as well as study the seas. This is the present 
arrangement. 
Mr. Lennon. I won’t take time at this point in the record to discuss 
the traumatic effect that we have had in our relationship with the 
executive branch of the Government in trying to convince the execu- 
tive branch of the Government that neither the so-called Coordinating 
Committee on Oceanography nor the subsequent Interagency Com- 
mittee on Oceanography reached the level that its policies were 
followed; it did not reach a policymaking level. 
I am constrained to mention the fact that in the consideration of 
Public Law 89-454, you remember the exchange of colloquy and con- 
