FOREWORD 



In this, its second Annual Report, the National 

 Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere 

 (NACOA) comments on a number of fast-moving 

 if somewhat disputatious topics: resource man- 

 agement organization, energy, the coastal zone, 

 atmospheric affairs, and fisheries. 



NACOA was chartered by P.L. 92-125 to report, 

 both to the President and to the Congress, on 

 national marine and atmospheric affairs, and to 

 the Secretary of Commerce with respect to the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

 (NOAA). It reports this year, as it did last, by 

 treating a series of priority topics where it can 

 do so with assurance. The intent is to deal with 

 the leading edges of marine and atmospheric af- 

 fairs rather than to review the whole array of pro- 

 grams. And, once again, there were several funda- 

 mental and pressing issues which NACOA wanted 

 to include but did not, largely because prepara- 

 tion could not be adequate. 

 The theme of this report — which we treat in more 

 detail in the Introduction — is the need for im- 

 proved management of programs in both the 

 oceans and the atmosphere to counter the dis- 

 persive tendencies which seem to be occurring in 

 the shadow of jurisdictional frictions and in the 

 absence of resource leadership. While NACOA be- 



