91 



past we have had many commissions who have produced very excel- 

 lent reports and have voluminous reports and then after a few years 

 we see that these reports have merely accumulated some dust on some- 

 one's library shelf and I think it would be nothino; short of tragic if 

 nothing were done to implement the basic proposals of this splendid 

 report. 



It is obvious that if we are to proceed with a national marine policy 

 in an orderly and unified fashion, we must seek new organizational 

 means to bring such order and unity to our efforts and therefore we 

 need both a national and a rational approach. 



For this reason, I fully endorse the recommendation of the Stratton 

 Commission to create a new, strong and independent National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Agency to coordinate and direct our national marine 

 policy in the years ahead. 



I am going to refrain from that temptation to call this a "wet 

 NASA" as some have done since the analogy just doesn't hold water. 

 As Dr. Wenk has pointed out, this is not a crash program, nor is it an 

 exclusively Federal program, because it is only as you mesh together 

 the effective cooperation and the abilities of industry, the academic 

 world, and State and local government, only as all of these parts of 

 our society can work together in ocean related research and develop- 

 ment will we be able to carry out the recommendations of this report. 



But at the same time there is certainly a very definite need for 

 Federal leadership in this area, for a national plan of action based 

 on national policy. There is a need to draw together the proliferation 

 of marine missions scattered throughout our sprawling Federal 

 bureaucracy. 



There is a need to give some central direction and support to marine 

 missions being conducted in industrj^, by universities and by State and 

 local groupings. In short, there is a need to provide for a means for 

 undertaking a full range of marine-related activities geared to broad 

 human needs ; or, as the 1966 act put it : 



To develop, encourage and maintain a coordinated, comprehensive, and long- 

 range national program in marine science for tlie benefit of mankind. 



I frankly don't see how you are going to accomplish those objectives 

 or meet those needs without a strong, independent agency like NOAA. 

 NOAA is central to the success of a large number of the Commission's 

 recommendations and the Commission has therefore urged its "im- 

 mediate adoption" if we are to "mobilize the resources of our Govern- 

 ment in the most effective manner to lend strength and power to the 

 Nation's marine commitment." 



I concur with this assessment and I would respectfully urge this 

 committee to give priority attention to the implementation of the 

 NOAA proposal that is made in the report. 



I think it is significant to note that the Commission has chosen not 

 to adopt the wholesale consolidation of all marine activities within a 

 single structure. It recognized that some of these programs provide 

 close operational support to the departments and agencies in which 

 they are presently located and should therefore not be moved. 



These include the National Science Foundation's marine and atmos- 

 pheric science programs, the Interior Department's fresh water, sea- 

 shore and mineral resources programs, the Army Corps of Engineers' 

 coastal and waterways programs, the Smithsonian Institution's bio- 



