PREFACE 



The National Oceanographic Program — A Perspective 



The ocean has long had special significance to the people of the United States. Since 

 colonial days we have both profited and suff^ered from our intimate relationship with 

 the sea. Today, we face the sea along a general coastline of 12,500 miles. Our cities, 

 villages and farms have experienced the destructive forces of hurricanes and storm- 

 generated waves. Our mariners have known the fury of troubled seas. Yet we have grown 

 and prospered in many ways because of the sea. Quite early, our proximity to the ocean 

 encouraged private enterprise to develop and expand industries such as fishing and 

 shipbuilding. Opportunities for trade stimulated the growth of a merchant marine, 

 which eventually projected U.S. maritime power throughout the world. 



From the first days of the Republic, American industry looked to the Federal Govern- 

 ment for protection and assistance in these endeavors. Thus, among its early acts, the 

 Congress established in 1790 a sea-going Revenue Service (later the Coast Guard) to 

 enforce United States laws at sea. In 1798, it authorized a navy, to defend our coasts 

 and our ocean commerce, and a marine hospital service (later to become the Public 

 Health Service) to provide medical care for merchant seamen. The Coast Survey (later 

 the Coast and Geodetic Survey) was established in 1807 to improve navigation in coastal 

 waters. As the nation became more involved in the marine environment, the Federal 

 Government assumed additional responsibilities in the national interest: to dredge 

 harbors and navigable channels (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1824); to protect 

 and improve the management of our fishery resources (Department of State, 1828; 

 and the U.S. Fish Commission, 1871— later, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and 

 the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife); to provide charting and routing services 

 to Naval and merchant ships (the Depot of Charts and Instruments— 1830, now the 

 Naval Oceanographic Office). In assuming these responsibilities, the government sought 

 practical solutions to practical problems, principally in the fields of navigation and 

 fisheries. 



In the nineteenth century, the scientific community emerged to give new direction 

 to our efl^orts at sea. Here, as in Europe, naturalists with an interest in the marine en- 

 vironment were essentially landbound, working from small boats in shallow waters 

 and along beaches. A few men, however, sought a broader understanding of the ocean's 

 processes, boundaries, and contents. Their research required the collection of data 

 over broad ocean areas, but only the government was in a position to provide the facil- 

 ities for such oceanwide studies. Throughout most of the century, the Navy, the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, and the Smithsonian Institution (founded in 1846) encouraged 

 scientists to accompany government sponsored e^cpeditions. The Navy, through the 

 efforts of Matthew Fontaine Maury, requested mariners to make systematic observa- 

 tions of winds and currents from merchant vessels so that forecasts could be made 

 of sailing conditions in distant oceans. 



Thus, research and data collection — insofar as it was relevant to an agency's mission — 

 was encouraged and often supported by the Federal Government. By the early 1870s, 

 for example, our New England fisheries clearly required a scientific basis for manage- 

 ment. But few scientists were then available in government to provide this support. 

 Fortunately, the Smithsonian Institution — the only government agency at that time 

 with a charter permitting it to conduct basic research — was able to encourage naturalists 

 to perform research for the U.S. Fish Commission. Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary 

 of the Smithsonian, became first Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries (1871). 



