Natural Resources and 

 Marine Affairs' 



Marine and atmospheric resources offer problems in proper management which 

 differ sufficiently from those on land to make it unwise to treat national activi- 

 ties offshore — or in the atmosphere — as mere extensions of what goes on on 

 solid ground. On the other hand, management of our land, water, and atmos- 

 pheric resources are so related and associated, so interactive, that to split them 

 up organizationally is artificial, wasteful, and frustrates progress. In this chapter, 

 NACOA deals with some of the difficulties generated by the currently fragmented 

 treatment and suggests an organizational approach to correct it. NACOA's 

 primary concern is that oceanic and atmospheric efforts maintain a focus which 

 recognizes the unique and special characteristics of each. 



NACOA finds that national management and organization of the Fed- 

 eral roles and missions concerning marine and atmospheric affairs is im- 

 proving too slowly if, indeed, it is improving at all. There are too many 

 actors, too many separate chains of command, too many crosscutting pol- 

 icies, too many separate budgets, appropriations, and programs. In this con- 

 fusion, national priorities have no perspective and neither the Executive 

 Branch nor the Congress is in a position to lead effectively, much less en- 



* The organizational bond between the oceans and atmosphere, to which NACOA 

 owes its existence, evolved in large part from the need to bring together the scien- 

 tific research and observational activities going on because of the key role the 

 oceans play in forming weather and in reflecting it. The users of atmospheric fore- 

 casts and other services are myriad, however, and no less terrestrial than they are 

 marine, and include activities in the private sector as well as governmental. It is 

 somewhat arbitrary, therefore, to locate atmospheric activities in one department 

 rather than another. We include them in a department for natural resources be- 

 cause of the history of their relationship with the other activities, particularly 

 marine. We believe the present Federal organization for atmospheric affairs is 

 generally excellent and should be preserved in any reorganization. This is not the 

 case with marine activities which are dispersed. Accordingly, we focus the sys- 

 tematic discussion in this chapter on the marine programs and deal with the 

 atmospheric aspects only where they arise 



