100 



Captain Bauer, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am greatly honored 

 to be allowed to appear before you as a private citizen who is extremely 

 concerned about the future of marine sciences as well as the develop- 

 ment of our total earth's environment and its natural resources. 



My statement this morning will apply to that part of the report of 

 the Commission on Marine 'Science, Engineering, and Resources which 

 concerns itself with a proposed organization. May I say, at the outset, 

 that I thoroughly disagree with the proposals of the Commission re- 

 garding this reorganization. 



Basically, any organization which desires to effectively study an en- 

 vironmental system, such as planet Earth, must consider the whole as 

 well as its parts. 



One cannot separate the atmosphere from the oceans or both from 

 the land and reasonably expect to obtain the necessary information to 

 enable our Nation to utilize advantageously in a continuing manner, 

 our natural resources. 



For example, and this is just one of many, I might add, the struc- 

 ture of our continental shelves and slopes depends on sediments trans- 

 ported from the continent by erosion (which is due to wind and rain) 

 through rivers to the oceans, and thence to the shelf and slope and some 

 of these sediments go into the oceans. 



Aeolian transport (by wind alone) of light dust also occurs in cer- 

 tain areas. Thus, one can see we have a coupled system which cannot 

 be separated into parts. Studies of the continental shelf cannot be in- 

 terpreted without a consideration of the complete air, land, and sea 

 system. 



This is a fundamental objection to the proposed organization of 

 NOAA, which essentially combined the atmosphere and the oceans and 

 leaves out considerations of the land. My contention is you cannot do it. 



A second objection to the creation of NO A A is one of Federal man- 

 agement. The Commission proposal is to remove certain bits and pieces 

 from various existing departments. Those bits and pieces are sup- 

 posedly the largest civilian marine oriented groups in the Federal 

 Government. They would be placed in an agency reporting directly 

 to the President. This would eliminate any higher echelon of manage- 

 ment which is concerned with the total environment. 



If this were carried to its logical conclusion a group of enthusiasts, 

 say, concerned with cancer research forgetting the other parts of the 

 human body, would want a separate agency reporting directly to the 

 President concerning their problems. 



Chaos would result. That is why I might add, gentlemen, that we 

 have such a thing as a Cabinet. 



Whether it is organized properly or not I don't know. I will make 

 some remarks as to that a little later. My third objection to the pro- 

 posed creation of NOAA is that the assumption of the recommended 

 responsibilities given to NOAA in the complete report, would result 

 in the Interior Department being no longer concerned with the Marine 

 environment ! 



In particular this would apply to the U.S. 'Geological Survey. All 

 of its current functions would be duplicated by the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey which does not now have the capabilities of the Geological Sur- 

 vey in geology, geophysics and geochemistry. 



