Tables. DOCTORAL CANDIDATES AND DEGREES GRANTED AT 29 INSTITUTIONS 



WITH OCEAN SCIENCE CURRICULA 



Anticipated. 



Source: April 1968 Survey by Committee on Marine Research, Education, and Facilities, National Council on Marine 

 Resources and Engineering Development. 



between the physical and geophysical ocean- 

 ographers on the one hand and the marine biology 

 and fisheries oceanographers on the other. There is 

 a growing awareness of these dichotomies. These 

 dichotomies worry scientists as they begin more 

 fully to comprehend the interdependence of their 

 disciplines and realize that the problems of the 

 estuaries, development of marine resources, en- 

 virormiental observation and prediction, can be 

 solved only by concerted effort of interacting 

 disciplines. 



If adolescence is measured by excitement and 

 rapid growth, then the present state of marine 

 science qualifies well for this appellation. The new 

 excitement about the oceans has communicated 

 itself quickly. The youth of our country go where 

 the action is and in their mind the action in 

 oceanography is scientifically and intellectually 

 exciting. An ever-increasing number of well quali- 

 fied students are applying for courses in the 

 marine sciences. Graduate schools in recent years 

 have turned away far more qualified applicants 

 than they have accepted; graduate training today is 

 proceeding at unprecedented levels. Table 8 shows 

 the rapid growth of doctoral candidates and 

 doctoral degrees granted from 1960 to 1968. 



The marine science enterprise, in comparison 

 with a decade ago, is healthy, energetic and 

 diversified, with the normal stresses and strains 

 that beset a vigorously growing field. 



However, the Nation's current financial stresses 

 are beginning to inhibit growth at a time when the 

 enterprise at the academic institutions is on the 

 verge of fuU flower. 



As a measure of the levelling off of the financial 

 support for marine science the growth in research 

 funds during the past five years of two of the 

 largest agencies which have traditionally supported 

 basic marine science research at academic institu- 

 tions—the Office of Naval Research and the 

 National Science Foundation— were examined. 



This growth is shown in Table 9. Since 1963 the 

 rate of growth has decreased from 7.3 per cent to 



Table 9. NAVY AND NATIONAL SCIENCE 



FOUNDATION OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 



FUNDING 



Total Research Funds 



(in millions of dollars) 



'contract Research Program. 



2.2 per cent. The amount spent by these two 

 agencies over the years is shown in Figure 2. The 

 period of rapid growth of the first half of the 

 decade of the 60's has stopped. 



The momentum attained over the past decade 

 must be maintained for at least as long as 

 necessary to place the activity on a stable, higher 



Figure 2. Navy and National Science Founda- 

 tion oceanographic research funding. 



plateau that will underpin a total national marine 

 affairs program. 



1-19 



