245 



In its review and analysis of the present ocean effort, and fche futnre 

 program which it has recommended in its re[)ort to the President, the 

 Commission recommends as a management strnctnrethe estal^lislnnent 

 of a major civilian agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Agency, reporting directly to the President. 



The primary mission of this agency is to implement the programs 

 that the Commission has recommended for our national effort, 

 specifically : 



To explore the marine frontier and its interrelationsiiips with the atmosphere; 



To define its resources ; 



To advance capabilities for its use ; 



To provide supporting services, including weather and ocean forecasts ; 



To minimize conflicts over uses of the marine environment ; 



To coordinate scientific and technical requirements and recommendations in 

 suppoi-t of foreign policy objectives ; and 



To serve marine industry and the marine interests of the American people. 



The Commission also recommends, in order to coordinate the inter- 

 ests of the Federal Government, the States and regions, industry and 

 the academic community, the establishment of the National Advisory 

 Committee for the Oceans, comprising 15 members with backgrounds 

 in and responsibilities representing the above interests. 



Finally, the Commission recommends the need for the Congress to 

 organize its committee structure so that greater focus can be given to 

 the entire program in marine activities. 



At this point in my statement it is probably unnecessary but I should 

 like to remind your committee that recommendations for the integra- 

 tion and improved management of our national program in the oceans 

 have previously been made by several important groups. 



In June 1966, the Panel on Oceanography of the President's Science 

 Advisory Committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. Gordon J. F. 

 MacDonald, recommended, "a major reorganization of non-Navy 

 governmental activities in oceanography. The recommended reorga- 

 nization would place in a single agency all those Federal activities 

 related to description, prediction, and attempts to develop capabilities 

 of modifying the environment (ocean, atmosphere, and solid earth), 

 and those activities concerned with managing and developing resources 

 of the ocean." 



Also, in 1966, the Committee on Oceanography of the National 

 Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, under the chairman- 

 ship of Dr. Milner B. Schaefer, in its rejport entitled "Oceanography 

 1966," had this to say about the national program : 



. . . We still have no national ocean program with which to implement the 

 policy — 



Public Law 89^5^ 



and no national ocean budget with which to fund it. National needs now require 

 that we build the managerial structure needed to develop these instruments. Con- 

 siderable coordination of managerial function in both executive and legislative 

 branches of the Government will be necessary before these forward steps can be 

 taken. 



The position of certain industrial leaders in this matter is reflected 

 by a group in the National Security Industrial Association, under the 

 chairmanship of Mr. John H. Clotworthy, in a March 1964, publica- 

 tion entitled "A National Ocean Program." 



