16 
aircraft, satellites, and newly developed automatic data 
collection devices are able to contribute to the acquisition 
of the desired data, these techniques will be phased into 
the plan with accompanying adjustments in the missions 
of the ships. The best estimates presently available, how- 
ever, indicate that ships will remain the major operational 
element in the program through at least 1972. These ships 
Will inelude: 
1. Present survey ships of the Naval Oceanographic Office and 
the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 
2. Newly constructed oceanographic survey ships currently 
planned by government agencies, 
3. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries ships, 
4, Coast Guard ships, and 
5. Oceanographic research ships of the military and civilian 
oceanographic laboratories whenever these laboratories feel 
that. participation in a Sspeciiie survey will turther thei 
research aims, 
An essential element of the Ocean Survey Plan is that 
each platform be utilized to the utmost. For the ships this 
means that any that are used for Ocean Surveys will collect 
as many of the prescribed data as their instrumentation and 
capability permit, even though the agency operating the ship 
does not itself have a specific requirement for some of these 
data. Personnel on Ocean Survey ships of the Coast and 
Gecdetic Survey and of the Coast Guard will thus obtain 
biological specimens and data and meteorological information 
