enable the institution to play a leadership role, it 

 must provide some formal mechanism for allowing 

 visiting scientists to share these facilities. 



How large these university-National laboratories 

 might become and how many might be established 

 is dependent upon many factors. Considering the 

 present and projected growth of the national 

 oceanographic program, we are inclined to think 

 that no more than a dozen such institutions should 

 be designated. Whatever the number, some effort 

 should be made to provide geographic distribution. 

 For example, there should be university-National 

 laboratories on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts as 

 well as one each on the Great Lakes and in the 

 Arctic, and one in Hawaii. 



One of the key desiderata of the university- 

 National laboratory will be to foster the partner- 

 ship between marine science and technology. 

 There should be established within such labora- 

 tories the necessary engineering staffs and engi- 

 neering support facilities, or arrangements should 

 be made for close affiliation with engineering 

 groups in industry or engineering departments of 

 universities. 



Recommendation : 



A small group of institutions, which should in- 

 clude but not be restricted to the acknowledged 

 leaders, should be designated "university-National 

 laboratories." They should be distributed geo- 

 graphically to cover different parts of the ocean 

 and should be provided with adequate facilities for 

 undertaking global deep ocean programs in basic 

 science. Their facilities should be available to 

 scientists at other universities and Federal labora- 

 tories for related basic science activities. They 

 should be accorded adequate institutional support 

 for maintenance and operation, and in turn should 

 commit themselves and their facilities to serve 

 needs of scientific groups affiliated with other 

 institutions. Such an institutional arrangement will 

 insure that the Nation's leading oceanographic 

 institutions will be provided adequate resources 

 and support to insure their continued health and 

 vigor. 



III. COASTAL AND ESTUARIIME LABORA- 

 TORIES 



The need for better understanding and manage- 

 ment of our coastal-estuarine zones and the Great 



Lakes is evident.* The problems have been 

 enumerated in several reports of the Commission 

 panels, including this one. The problems are many 

 and require the skills of social scientists as well as 

 natural scientists. While the overriding need is for 

 the development of a rational management scheme 

 for these important waters, scientific understand- 

 ing is critical if information on the complex 

 dynamics, ecology, and chemistry of the area is to 

 provide the basis for rational decision-making. 



It is in this general area that the greatest 

 urgency exists. Coastal lands are some of the most 

 desirable in the United States and many actions 

 are irreversible. 



The present institutional arrangements for pro- 

 viding the necessary scientific support are deficient 

 in number, size, and quality. The problems of 

 estuaries and near-coastal areas are principally, but 

 not exclusively, of a local or regional nature and 

 vary greatly from estuary to estuary, from coastal 

 zone to coastal zone. 



There is a need for the establishment of coastal 

 zone research institutions in association with 

 appropriate academic institutions to provide the 

 basic understanding of coastal and estuarine 

 processes so that Federal, State, and local govern- 

 ments can have available information on which to 

 base rationally their management procedures. 

 These research facilities need not be large in size 

 but should have adequate facilities and staff sizes 

 that exceed the critical limit to maintain a stable 

 program. 



There is sufficient difference between estuarine 

 and coastal problems from area to area, and these 

 problems are of such fundamental importance to 

 the welfare of this country, that there should be a 

 university laboratory devoted to basic and applied 

 marine science located on every major estuarine 

 system. The relationships of oil wells to shrimp 

 and oyster fisheries in Louisiana are different from 

 those between pulp mills and salmon fisheries in 

 Washington and the cold water organisms of the 

 coast of Maine have ecological tolerances that 

 differ from those of the warm waters south of 

 Cape Hatteras. Such problems are probably better 

 attacked in university centers in their respective 

 states than through some central Federal or 

 university-National laboratory. 



Estuaries, Pub. No. 83, American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, 1967. 



1-49 



