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chant marine is deteriorating very rapidly. I know the administration 
is concerned about this because the President has stated that something 
must be done. 
Yet we insert all this timidity about trying to move in this area and 
put some emphasis on the ocean because you say, “Well, everything 
is connected with the air and the ocean and the sea, and it is hard to 
divide.” 
But how much of the world is made up of the seas? 
Dr. DuBripcr. Three-quarters. 
Mr. Roczrs. Seventy-five percent. So there must be some connection 
between air and water that is fairly important, that we really have not 
put emphasis on. 
What this committee is trying to do, I think, Dr. DuBridge, is to 
emphasize through this legislation that we need to do something in 
developing the resources of the sea, and we have not done it. 
Now, there are 10,000 roadblocks as to why Coast Guard ought to be 
with the Department of Transportation, Fish and Wildlife may be 
with Interior, but this is a first step. 
We realize that it may take a little time to bring all the functions 
together, and I think you have pointed out very effectively that proba- 
bly NOAA as presently constituted in the legislation and in the Com- 
mission’s report is not broad enough. 
I agree, but we may want to get it started as a first step and then 
as you say, because it is difficult sometimes to set up a new agency, 
bring in these agencies. Do you think that would be wise? 
Dr. DuBripcr. Or one could even go back a ways and say that 
NOAA is too great a first step and one should have a more restricted 
idea of the new agency and then broaden it later. 
I think it might be an evolutionary thing. One could start with a 
‘partial approach and then go beyond the first NOAA if this works out. 
There are various ways to do it. 
Mr. Rogers. Yes, but I think we are at a point in the development 
of the nation where we need to do something a little more dramatic 
than just a gradual step and this is what we are hoping to develop 
here. 
You mentioned ESSA. How aggressive really is the Department of 
Commerce in this area ? 
They have a construction program for laboratories and now you are 
putting great stress on coastal laboratories, one that I know of. Do 
you know what the entire construction program for the Department 
of Commerce is? 
Dr. DuBriper. No, I don’t happen to. 
Mr. Rocers. Three million dollars. Think of that. Two and a half 
million for a laboratory. And do you know what they are going to 
have to do with it now because of our great problem of inflation, and 
we certainly havea problem? They have to cut it. 
This is the great emphasis we are putting on laboratories. I think we 
should have it in an agency where we would put some emphasis and 
build some public support. The public support is there if it is just 
directed, and I don’t think they have grasped in many areas of the 
administration this vast public support for doing something in the area. 
Then when we look at the economic benefit. You may not have this 
presently, but you might submit for the record, if you could, what you 
