ע Basic research and research beneficial to several national goals Mission related research Excludes Mohole at $ 17.0 M in FY 66 and FIGURE 20.-Funding for oceanographic research. Fiscal Year 1968 Research support proposed in the marine sciences for the next fiscal year of $138 million is roughly $18 million more than was appropriated for 1967. Research funding during the past three years constitutes a constant thirty percent share of the total marine sciences budget (See Figure 20). This also represents a continuing two percent of the Federal research budget. Most of the 1968 increase is reflected in the budgets of the Navy, Commerce, and the National Science Foundation. Details are presented in Part Two of this report. Of special note is the Foundation's designation of marine sciences as one of the four fields which deserve increased support in order to fill hollows in the broad spectrum of research. The task of identifying areas of marine science which must be strengthened to meet the national need will not be the sole responsibility of the National Science Foundation; this task must also be assumed by all agencies supporting research in this field, and this area will receive continued attention by the Council. Trends Oceanography, as a field of scientific specialization, is comparatively new. The first academic degree was granted only thirty-five years ago. The growth in university training is shown in Figure 21. A 1964 survey funded by the National Science Foundation found 2,650 persons professionally employed in marine science and technology, of whom 87 B.S.). The remainder applied their specialized training in other basic disciplines to oceanic problems. In most universities the field is one for graduate specialization, and it has been recognized that research experience should be integrated with formal education. The Federal budget includes support for student training in a variety of ways. Some receive fellowships while many more are given the opportunity to participate in the research supported at the universities by grants and contracts. More facilities are becoming available for research. Since 1960 more than fifty ships have been built or modernized and fifty-eight new laboratories and similar facilities have been established. Others have been strengthened. New tools and instruments are becoming available, somewhat the consequence of increased involvement of the industrial community. Manned deep submersibles are justifying the vision of their early advocates and are being used increasingly as scientists become aware of their potential. U.S.-built submersibles made 229 dives for research in 1966, as compared to twenty-eight in 1965. Towed unmanned vehicles are making it possible to examine the deep ocean in new detail, and sophisticated instrument packages, capable of freefall and recovery, are collecting information long wanted by the oceanographer. Buoy technology has advanced to the point where experiments requiring long time series observations can be realistically planned. Satellite navigation has made available a new precision in spatial measurement at sea, and the utility of satellite-mounted sensors for large-scale investigations is being demonstrated. As projects continue to grow in complexity and cost, a higher level of collaboration with industry and Government is likely. More joint ventures may be expected, with additional consideration of accommodating scientists from universities not having major facilities of their own. Another type of joint venture in which commercial ships serve as platforms of opportunity for research has been found to serve the interests of marine science successfully, economically, and without interference with the primary commercial missions. Chapter XIII LOOKING AHEAD Marine science affairs-the subject of this report-is a term intended to portray the body of oceanic activities that link science and society. Many of these relationships are old, dating to man's earliest efforts to extract fish and salt from the sea, and to his earliest explorations of our planet. But many of the relationships between science and society are new and still not fully understood. The development of understanding has begun, however, a development that can lead us to our objective: the formulation of public policies and purposes which will stimulate and guide the many separate ocean activities and relate them directly to major goals of society. The major challenges which lie ahead of this Nation do not terminate at the water's edge. Neither do the solutions. As the world population grows faster than its food supply, the sea may provide nutrition. As the world demand for energy and minerals grows faster than the population, resources in and under the sea will be needed. As coastal cities become more crowded, the quality of urban living may be enhanced by preserving the natural heritage of our shoreline. Two of the programs discussed earlier may serve to illustrate this relationship to social goals. One is the program for exploiting the food resources of the sea and the other is weather forecasting. The food resources program relates directly and immediately to one of the most urgent of current world problems: the problem of protein malnutrition. Technological progress with the food resources program will lead to economic and social gains in protein production, gains which will have profound world significance. Half the world's population suffers from some form of protein deficiency. If ocean fishing methods are improved-through advances in fisheries technology and the exportation of that technology to needy nations—a sharp increase in fish protein production could begin to eradicate protein deficiency among the present world population. Weather forecasting-another field which relates directly to society is a field whose advancement depends upon man's increased understanding of the oceans. In the system of heat energy coming to the earth from the sun, the ocean is the great regulator of weather and oceans as meteorological and oceanographic observation stations, in conjunction with adequate global atmospheric data obtained from radiosondes, satellites and balloons, could transmit data to computers ashore for analysis and prediction. When coupled to high-speed computers, this monitoring system could enable us to improve the accuracy and time scale of weather forecasts, extending our forecasting capabilities to more than a week ahead, a capability which will be important to various fields of human endeavor-agriculture, shipping, travel, health, recreation—indeed, any activity which is affected by weather. As we extend our understanding of the oceans, this new knowledge will enable us to determine new technological resources which must be developed to bring us closer to our goals. We will learn, too, with this extended understanding, the appropriate role of the Federal Government, the interactions of Federal, State, and local interests, and international cooperation in accomplishing these important tasks. As use of the seas and Great Lakes expands, immediate steps to promote international cooperation as well as mitigate conflict and debilitating rivalry will be needed. Oceans can tie the nations of the world together more than they separate them geographically. The sciences of and access to the oceans are universal. Now all nations must increase their energies to promote the peaceful and cooperative use of the oceans, so that the ocean's bounty may serve the needs of mankind. The time is ripe to apply our knowledge of the sea. To be sure, there is much that we still do not know-this will always be truebut we know more of the sea than our actions toward exploitation might suggest. The technology is ready-new structural materials, miniaturized electronics, computers, nuclear power, underwater vehicles. These tools await utilization. At the same time, we must continue to nourish the source of this technology—the sciences from which marine technology derives. The sciences of the sea are still very young and their potential for mankind still untapped. Before man can enjoy the benefits of these unexplored domains, a body of science must be enlarged from which marine technology can draw new tools and new clues of fruitful exploration. A responsibility of the Federal Government in this important undertaking is the development of marine science policies which both foster and respond to society's dependence on the oceans. But the rational evolution of such policies cannot come through Federal actions alone, for this evolution requires a creative partnership among Federal, State, and local governments, as well as the academic and industrial communities. A start has been made by the Marine Sciences Council, in relating marine activities to broad goals, in selecting areas for special emphasis, |