1068 
There is no single focus for geomagnetic, gravity, bathymetric, or other ocean 
survey data. E 
Not only is there no one place to go to obtain marine data, there is not even 
one mechanism which will tell you what exists. But more important is the 
problem of collating the information. In too many areas—of which air-sea inter- 
action is an outstanding example—scientists and engineers must deal with simul- 
taneously processed data from different environments, with computers which are 
in separate centers, with differing formats, programs, procedures and goals. 
As I previously mentioned, the data from many marine disciplines 
are not stored in the National Oceanographic Data Center. Part of this 
is due to restrictions of our charter which prohibits the duplication of 
the functions of other official repositories such as the Weather Bureau, 
the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Naval Oceanographic Office, and 
so forth. 
The National Oceanographic Data Center does interact with each 
of these activities to obtain the data for the customers. 
Separate storage can be troublesome to the users; for instance, if 
you wish to correlate the sediment transport with the subsurface cur- 
rents or to establish the relationship between the climatological events 
and the wind driven currents. 3 
In the first instance the user would have to go to three sources, the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Naval Oceanographic Office, and the 
National Oceanographic Data Center. 
For the second, the NWRC and the National Oceanographic Data 
Center. , 
Further, these data are all too frequently not processed in the same 
manner and could be in incompatible formats. 
I propose that a solution to these types of problems would be to es- 
tablish two data centers in a single agency, one for meteorological and 
climatological, and the other for all other types of marine data. 
Compatability among the data bases would be nominally assured. 
The administrative costs would be considerably reduced. I think within 
the state of the art and the computer technology either of the data 
bases could be rapidly accessed. 
The Commission stated: “ * * * the already overloaded general- 
purpose data centers should avoid involvement to the extent possible 
in any aspect of the data problem which might have logical affiliation 
with existing mission agencies.” 
I do not agree with this conclusion. 
I believe that a general purpose marine data center—a concept en- 
dorsed by our advisory board—would not detract from the missions 
of the agencies or organizational components of a NOAA. I believe 
that the center would be of value for a number of efforts, for instance, 
the Navy. 
For example, bathymetric data, once they were used to produce and 
update navigational charts, could be accessioned by the marine data 
center and be available for all other uses. Certain fisheries statistics 
that are environmentally related—for example, catch per unit of ef- 
fort as opposed to total landings—and which are Bureau of Commer- 
cial Fisheries mission oriented could be included. . 
Gravity and magnetic data after the preparation of the charts and 
reports could repose in the center. 
Some data could and should be excluded; for example, certain of 
the research data that have a one-time application. However, these 
