Chapter 3 The System Today 



I. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 



The Nation has long recognized the need for 

 marine prediction in support of the many require- 

 ments cited in earher chapters. The first well- 

 known chart of the Gulf Stream was pubUshed by 

 Benjamin Franklin in 1783, while he was Post- 

 master General, to speed the delivery of trans- 

 atlantic mail. As early as 1842, Lieutenant Maury 

 of the U.S. Navy began compiling wind and 

 current charts from reports included in the log 

 books of sailing vessels. Maury recognized the need 

 for more data to make his charts more representa- 

 tive. He wrote letters to scientists all over the 

 world asking for support in estabUshing a universal 

 system for collecting weather observations on sea 

 and land. 



After a period of inactive duty following an 

 injury Maury was recalled to active duty on July 1 , 

 1842 to become superintendent of the Navy's 

 Depot of Charts and Instruments. The agency was 

 then renamed National, or Naval Observatory 

 when it moved into new quarters in 1844. (From 

 1854 to 1866 it was called "Naval Observatory 

 and Hydrographical Office"; in 1866 the Hydro- 

 graphic Office was separated from the Naval 

 Observatory.)' 



As a result of Maury's early actions, a meeting 

 was held in Brussels in 1853 which included 

 representatives of all the world's maritime nations. 

 Maury tried to estabUsh the concept of coopera- 

 tion in making weather observations on land, but 

 that goal was not achieved; instead, it was decided 

 to limit cooperation to observations at sea. It is 

 still possible, however, to trace the establishment 

 of national meteorological offices in Great Britain 

 and Germany to his influence. Later response to 

 Maury's influence resulted in the estabhshment of 

 hydrographic services in other maritime nations. In 

 1854, a storm at Balaklava on the Black Sea 

 wrecked the French fleet; as a result the French 

 high command demanded and got the first synop- 



Maury, Mathew Fontaine (edited by John LeigWy) 

 The Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology, 

 The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, 1963, 427 pp. (p. xi). 



tic weather service. In 1867, tide prediction tables 

 were published by the Coast Survey and in 1870 

 the National Weather Service was established as 

 part of the U.S. Army Signal Service. 



The first explicit Congressional recognition of 

 the need for comprehensive marine intelligence to 

 benefit commerce was in the 1890 legislation 

 passed by the 5 1 st Congress, which established the 

 U.S. Weather Bureau under the direction of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture (cf. Chapter 7). The Chief 

 of the Weather Bureau was assigned responsibility 

 for the "collection and transmission of marine 

 intelligence" as well as weather forecasting. Since 

 then, many agencies in the Federal Government 

 have found the acquisition and use of marine 

 intelligence essential to the conduct of their 

 missions. 



Marine environmental monitoring and predic- 

 tion activities have grown in response to many 

 needs which have developed over the years. The 

 panel has sought to ascertain whether this growth, 

 in response to pressing requirements, has produced 

 a system that is as efficient as the Nation needs. 

 On the basis of data gathered by the panel in its 

 hearings, and in the review of present and planned 

 Federal programs, we feel that certain programs 

 can be improved and other changes should be 

 made; these matters are covered by the recom- 

 mendations contained in this chapter, as well as 

 those of Chapter 7 regarding organization. 



A number of Federal agencies conduct one or 

 more of the following activities: acquisition of 

 physical oceanographic and related meteorological 

 data, the communication of such data, processing 

 data, forecasting, disseminating analyses and 

 forecasts. A number of relatively independent 

 regional programs are also in operation to provide 

 biological forecasts. The Departments of the In- 

 terior, Commerce, Defense, and Transportation are 

 all involved in one or more aspects of the overall 

 national marine environmental monitoring and 

 prediction program. In the remainder of this 

 chapter we describe the programs of these Federal 

 agencies. We have not attempted to present de- 

 tailed fiscal data for all activities described, but 

 give general funding levels to indicate the magni- 

 tude of the effort. 



n-15 



