Chesapeake Bay Institute, Johns Hopkins 

 University-research catamaran vessel 



vessel be under the control of that laboratory than 

 operated as part of a regional fleet. Ship opera- 

 tions are a major part of the costs of large research 

 institutions, but although ship operation costs 

 have increased in recent years, the percentages 

 have not. The total cost of ship operations at the 

 major oceanographic laboratories varies between 

 20 and 30 per cent of the total institutional 

 budget.^ 



The many intangible factors that determine 

 successful sea operations are not all easily identi- 

 fiable, but one of the most important is famil- 

 iarity with the facility. A research vessel is a 

 laboratory. Usually it is difficult for an experi- 

 mental scientist to go to another university as a 

 visiting professor, walk into a new laboratory, and 

 continue his research program at the same level of 

 efficiency. The new laboratory will be lacking 

 certain facilities or pieces of equipment that he has 

 at home. It takes time to learn what can be done 

 and how to get things done. 



The Role of Academic Institutions in the Develop- 

 ment of Marine Resources and Technology, Report of the 

 Council of Oceanographic Laboratory Directors, Sept. 12, 

 1967. 



University of Rhode Island research vessel 



Scientists within a laboratory who control a 

 vessel can often modify it so that it can do new 

 kinds of experimental work. In a very real way, 

 they design programs about the facilities of a given 

 vessel. They know what they can and cannot do 

 on any given ship. It would not be as easy with a 

 regional fleet. We believe that most of the ad- 

 vances in the state of the art, in terms of what one 

 can learn at sea, will continue to be made by those 

 persons working at oceanographic laboratories. 

 Oceanographers are no different from other scien- 

 tists in that, other things being equal, they tend to 

 gravitate to the institutions with the best facilities. 



1-61 



