52 



Continental Shelf 



ESSA is cooperating with the Navy, Bureau of 

 Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Coast Guard, and 

 five oceanographic institutions sponsored by 

 NSF and ONR in a joint long-term systematic 

 study of the Gulf Stream. 



The seaward extension of the Upper Mantle 

 Project Transcontinental Geophysical Survey will 

 be carried some 500 miles offshore between 35° 

 and 39° North off both the Atlantic and Pacific 

 coasts. The inner portions of this work will be 

 strictly continental shelf work and will be ac- 

 complished during" the next two years. 



Four ESSA vessels will continue to make new- 

 surveys of the shelf for the revision of various 

 chart ser\ices. One is working in an area off 

 Florida where surveys with continuously recording 

 echo sounders have never been made in a svstem- 

 atic manner. The surveys are designed to disclose 

 marine hazards and submarine topography for 

 navigational purposes. These surveys will be 

 of great value to marine geologists and others 

 concerned with the scientific and exploration 

 aspects of the shelf. However, they are biased to 

 the shoal water side because of the relatively 

 greater importance to shipping of precise de- 

 lineations in those areas. 



ESSA is concerned with the description of the 

 continental shelf as an integral part of this con- 

 tinent which can and must be exploited. The 

 program in ocean studies incltides work in 

 estuaries, on the shelves, and in the deep oceans, 

 where the basic interest is to expand our imder- 

 standing of these regions, rather than to ftnnish 

 data strictly for nautical charts. These two pro- 

 grams, the Nautical Charting and Ocean Studies 

 effort, are obviously complementary. Both con- 

 tribute to the research effort of the ESSA Insti- 

 tutes for Oceanography and Atmospheric Sci- 

 ences, as well as to the general fund of data 

 available to the oceanographic community. 



DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR 



Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



FY 1965-11,445,000 

 FY 1966-11,654,000 

 FY 1967 -$1,787,000 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries will con- 

 tinue its tradidonal, biologically-oriented survey 

 programs to produce information used in map- 

 ping the distribution of the living resources of 

 the sea and the physical characteristics of the 

 environment. Projects for FY 1967 include ex- 

 ploratory fishing surveys, sea surface temperature 

 and ecological studies, production of a faunal 

 atlas of the continental shelf, ttma assessment 

 surveys, distribudon studies of bottom fauna, 

 pelagic fishes, and in\ertebrates in the western 

 Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and eastern Pacific. 

 Hake resources off the West Coast will be as- 

 sessed, and major participation is planned in the 

 EASTROPAC survey in the tropical Pacific. 



EASTROPAC is a proposed cooperative ocean- 

 ographic study of a selected portion of the eastern 

 tiopical Pacific. Its purpose is to obtain funda- 

 mental information on the physical, chemical, 

 and biological features of this region that will 

 provide a background for further and more de- 

 tailed research, provide a basis for increasing 

 the harvest of the west coast tuna fisheries, and 

 aid in forecasting weather. The program is being 

 sponsored by the Eastern Pacific Oceanic Con- 

 ference and will have the support of Scripps 

 Institution of Oceanography, the Inter-American 

 Tropical Tuna Commission, and other univer- 

 sides and agencies. It is likely that Ecuador, Peru, 

 Chile, and Columbia will pardcipate. Some of the 

 data from the EASTROPAC Survev will con- 

 tribute to the SEAM.\P Program. 



Continental Shelf 



Explorations to assess the marine fishery re- 

 sources outside of known fishing areas will 

 continue off the southeast coast of the United 

 States. Shrimp off the Georgia and Florida east 

 coast and scallops off Florida and the Carolinas 

 w'ill receive particular attention. 



Seasonal distribution patterns and abundance 

 levels for bluefin tuna and swordfish will be 

 determined for previously unexplored areas. An 

 expanded tuna assessment program will be ini- 

 tiated to define the geographic and seasonal mo\e- 

 ments of these fish along the Adantic coast in 

 relation to environmental factors. An extensive 

 program will be conducted to delineate the areal 

 and seasonal \ariations in abundance and availa- 

 bilitv of the surf clam. Studies will be made of the 



