WELCCME 



Colonel F, O. Diercks, Director, Coastal Engineering Research Center, 

 welcomed the group to the meeting and to the Center, He pointed out that 

 CERC and its staff were the same group that had been known, until the fall 

 of 1963, as the Beach Erosion Board, and that the Center is responsible 

 for the research aspects of beach erosion control, one of the civil works 

 functions of the Army Chief of Engineers. He also noted that the Board 

 still exists with essentially the same membership but is now known as the 

 Coastal Engineering Research Board. After making announcements concerning 

 administrative details and the exhibits, Colonel Diercks introduced Major 

 General Graham, the Director of Civil Works, Corps of Engineers, U. S. 

 Army. 



OPENING REMARKS 



by 



Major General Jackson Graham 

 President, Coastal Engineering Research Board 



Let me "add my welcome to the welcome which Colonel Diercks has given 

 you. Our meeting today is one more event which shows the increasing in- 

 terest our Nation has in the oceans which border our shores. This par- 

 ticular meeting centers on the information that has been gathered - or is 

 planned to be gathered - on the structure of the Continental Shelf areas 

 bordering the U.S.A. and on the materials which compose the bottom. 



We need to add to our understanding of the physical structure of the 

 bottom in order to improve our military defenses and in order to indicate 

 the possibility of certain types of mining or construction activities on 

 or beneath the bottom. We need to know the composition of the bottom in 

 order to assess the existence, quantity, and quality of minerals and other 

 substances of economic usefulness to our Nation. This feature has become 

 of increasing interest as our potential for recovery of these bottom 

 materials and our need for them has increased. 



The Federal agencies represented here today are the ones having 

 direct responsibilities for studying the structure and composition of the 

 shelf, for informing our people of their findings, and to a degree , of 

 recognizing the potential usefulness of these findings to our defense and 

 to our economy. This agency, the Coastal Engineering Research Center, or 

 CERC, as it is commonly referred to, and the Coastal Engineering Research 

 Board, or CERB , which has an overview responsibility toward CERC, have 



