least-harm cut to the Coast Guard activities ^vas a far more serious one 

 to an interagency program in the oceans and atmosphere which, in a cer- 

 tain sense, belonged to no one. 



Another example, the Nation's oceanographic research fleet — whose 

 academic component is properly the joint responsibility of the Office of 

 Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, and whose govern- 

 ment in-house con:iponent is partly NOAA's and partly the Navy's — is 

 being reduced by about 25 percent in FY '74. This is at a time when a 

 long-cultivated collaboration between oceanographers and meteorologists 

 is just beginning to show results and joint programs with foreign scientists 

 are beginning to materialize. Though we are assured by these agencies — 

 after the fact of these budget cuts — that ways have been found to avoid 

 any very evident immediate impact, we have also discovered that none 

 has a very good idea of the future and any semblance of a national plan 

 is totally lacking. 



Looking Ahead 



The apparent lack of attention to marine affairs in the analysis under- 

 lying the proposed Department of Natural Resources in the "Papers" is 

 most striking when one looks ahead. New national needs for whose ful- 

 fillment the Federal Government n:iust assume broad leadership respon- 

 sibility are generating severe strains in the Federal establishment, and these 

 strains will grow unless eased by major realignment of responsibility with 

 authority. 



Take, for example, developing the oil and gas deposits of the Outer 

 Continental Shelf. The President has announced a goal of tripling the 

 annual rate of offshore acreage leased by 1979, implying among other 

 things: the need for strengthening operating standards and surveillance to 

 reduce the likelihood of oil spills ; the acquisition and dissemination of gen- 

 eral purpose geophysical survey data; the provision of marine geodetic con- 

 trols (particularly for lease demarcation) ; improved knowledge of marine 

 climatology, surface conditions, engineering properties of the ocean bottom ; 

 and the establishment of safety standards. The Department of Interior, 

 NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Corps of Engineers, the 

 Coast Guard, the Council for Environmental Quality, the National Science 

 Foundation, and the Navy are all involved in one or another aspect. 



The need for imported oil generates a need for building new offshore 

 facilities by 1980 collectively able to handle annually up to 500 million long 

 tons of crude oil carried by tankers of up to 500,000 dead weight tons. 

 Projections indicate a need to increase the capacity by another 200 mil- 

 lion long tons of crude oil per year by 1985. The legal regime for licensing 

 beyond territorial waters must be determined. Environmental safeguards 

 must be established and enforced. Navigation and traffic control systems 



