20 



2. The international field year for the Great Lakes, a joint United 

 States-Canadian program to study the dynamics of Lake Ontario, 

 wliich will lead to improved miderstanding of all the Great Lakes. 



3. The global investigation of the pollution of the marine environ- 

 ment is a recently initiated program under U.N. auspices. 



A panel of NOAA scientists will discuss these studies with you 

 tomorrow. 



Mr. Chairman, that concludes my presentation. I would point out 

 that the Marine i^rotection, Eesearch and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 

 directs the Department of Commerce, acting through NOAA, and in 

 cooperation with other Federal agencies concerned, to undertake a con- 

 tinuing and comprehensive program of research on the long-term 

 effects of man on ocean ecosystems. It calls for us to report on the 

 findings of this program to the Congress annually. The first report is 

 due next January, and we hope to be able to provide the committee 

 with a more detailed appraisal of the situation at that time.- 



I will now attempt to answer any questions. 



Senator Hollings. I went home for a sunny weekend, and we had 

 16 inches of rain. You are in charge of the weather bureau, too, aren't 

 you? 



Dr. White. Yes, Mr. Chairman. 



Senator Hollings. Dr. White, in connection with the statement, let 

 me ask one final questio)i about the international cooperation and in- 

 terplay between the United States and other nations now in this field 

 of research, and ocean pollution concerns. 



What can you tell us about that? Are we just doing our own pro- 

 gram, and trying to clean our own waters? There are seven seas; 

 what is being done around the world ? 



Dr. White. Sir, I think there is a worldwide consciousness of this 

 problem. It was fairly pointed out last year at the United Nations' 

 t'onference on the Human Environment, at Stockholm. This led to the 

 Convention on Ocean Dumping which was signed in London, I be- 

 lieve, earlier this year, or late in that year. 



There were programs proposed at Stockholm, and incidentalh'- I 

 will be leaving today for Geneva, to discuss those. They call on 

 UNESCO, though its Oceanographic Commission to bring nations to- 

 gether collectively to do much, more about monitoring pollution con- 

 ditions in the ocean. 



Tomorrow, one of our panel members will discuss this aspect of 

 cooperation on studying the marine environment. I believe you will 

 have the Director of the National Science Foundation testifying later 

 this momingr. Although I have not seen his testimonv, thev are re- 

 sponsible for the International Decade of Ocean Exploration, and one 

 aspect of that program is a program for baseline measurements of the 

 chemical condition of the ocean which would lay a fine base for our 

 knowledge of general pollution conditions in the ocean. This will be 

 done cooperatively with the other nations. 



So I think there is a growing recognition on the part of the nations 

 of the world that we have a serious problem. In local areas that con- 

 cern has grown rather intense. For example, the Mediterranean Sea 

 is highly polluted today, and the nations surrounding the Mediterran- 

 ean Sea, I just read in the newspaper have gotten together at Beirut 

 this last week to decide what actions those nations can take to arrest 

 pollution there. 



