1163 
for their efficient archiving and retrieval for use the most intimate relationship 
must be established between such data centers and their users. 
The United States Coast Guard in the Department of Transportation is becom- 
ing an important originator of ocean information as well as a protector of life 
at sea and an enforcer of public order at sea. 
The environmental services of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the U.S. 
Weather Bureau, the Sea-Air Interaction Laboratory, and some related func- 
tions of the Bureau of Standards were recently joined together in the Hnviron- 
mental Sciences Services Administration of the Department of Commerce. 
There is so much community of need and function among these civilian 
activities related to the ocean now situated in other parts of the Government and 
the Federal Fishery Function described above, that all of them (together with 
some other activities, such as the Beach and Erosion Board) should be combined 
in the same Department of Government so that there would be a more efficient 
division of labor among them, and so that they could more effectively serve the 
civilian needs respecting ocean affairs. 
Whether this be a new Department of the Oceans, a new Independent Agency, 
or be lodged in an existing Department of Government (such as Commerce, 
Interior, or Transportation) is not so important as the need to group these 
elements and functions into a single overall agency where the full impact of the 
civilian aspects of ocean use can be focused. 
4. Central Intergovernmental Oceanic Organization.—For ten years the ocean 
science community of the United States has strongly recommended the estab- 
lishment of a World Oceanographic Organization as a specialized agency of the 
United Nations in which could be focused all the international aspects of ocean 
science and technology, In the last two years this strong recommendation has 
been broadened in international as well as domestic support of the concept of 
a Central intergovernmental Oceanic organization within the United Nations 
framework to deal with all international aspects of ocean investigations and the 
uses of the sea. Strong support for this broadened concept has developed among 
the affected agencies of the United States, within the United Nations structure, 
in the governments of other nations, and in the international scientific community. 
It is obvious that such a specialized agency respecting the ocean will be estab- 
lished in the fullness of time, and probably rather sooner than later, because of 
pressing need among the nations to deal more effectively with rapidly growing 
international aspects of ocean investigations and use. The argument grows as 
to whether this should be created along disciplinary lines or along functional 
lines. If the former were adopted there would be, in the first place, a junction 
between the Intergovernmental Oceanographic commission of UNESCO and the 
oceanic parts of the World Meteorological Organization. If the latter were fol- 
lowed there would be a merging of IOC with FAO’s Department of fisheries and 
Committee on Fisheries. 
It is quite obvious that the world has passed the point where such a central 
intergovernmental oceanic organization will be formed to attend only to inter- 
national aspects of science, and that when this is all shaken out such an organi- 
zation will be concerned with the international aspects of ocean use as well. In 
such an event it is equally obvious that the international fishery function will 
be transferred from FAO to the new agency if only because the fish and shell- 
fish production from the ocean is so much more valuable than all other resources 
produced from the ocean, is of much more wide spread practical interest to 
United Nations members than other resources, and is growing so rapidly. 
This new step in international oceanic organization will not be taken for an 
indeterminant time yet. In the meantime the international ocean science function 
is centered in the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. I't is in the 
process of being broadened and strengthened. The international fishery function 
is lodged in Department of Fisheries of FAO. It has been in the process of being 
broadened and strengthened since 1965. 
In this interim the Joint Civilian Ocean Agency recommended above for the 
United States Government should have lead agency responsibility in dealing 
with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, in consultation with the 
Department of the Navy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department 
of State. The Federal Fishery function described above should have lead agency 
responsibilities, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture and the 
Department of State, in dealing with the Department of Fisheries and Com- 
mittee on Fisheries of FAO. It is in the Federal Fishery Function, as described, 
that the professional governmental expertise in fishery science, development, 
management and administration will reside. 
26—563—70—pt. 2: 42 
