Table X.1-Marine Science and Technology for Attaining National Goals-Continued

1. Fish handling, processing, packag- Mechanization, optimize systems

Improve catch statistics

Minimize institutional barriers

Research Needs

Table X.1-Marine Science and Technology for Attaining National Goals—Continued

Current Research Capabilities

Our investments over the past seven years have resulted in the accelerated development of marine scientific and technical manpower, ships, and facilities. The quality of our research fleet and shore facilities is unsurpassed. Our small but growing corps of highly trained specialists provides a strong creative base of talent (see Chapter XI).

The Federal Government has accepted responsibility to make sure that academic research has grown in proportion to needs and opportunities, public and private. Federal funding for oceanographic research is shown in Figure X.1.

2

In addition to the research contributions of the universities, there have been many substantial contributions from Government laboratories and from industry. There are more than 90 Federal, 40 State, 90 academic, and 25 private laboratories involved in some aspect of oceanographic research.1 These are listed in Appendix F. However, most of the basic research is carried out at 12 of our leading institutions. Research has been conducted both by multidisciplinary teams and by the oceanographer, physicist, chemist, biologist, or geologist working alone. The Federal Government has drawn on scientific results of completed research and on the scientists in planning research programs. Close communication between the Federal Government and the universities has been a particularly important factor in the success of science.

The Government's oceanographic research fleet currently includes 35 vessels with 32 additional survey vessels also collecting data related to basic research efforts. Most of these ships are well equipped with modern instrumentation, and the capabilities of some of our newer ships such as the OCEANOGRAPHER and SILAS BENT are unsurpassed. However, a few of these vessels were built in the 1940s and are becoming more expensive to maintain and operate and need to be replaced.

Universities operate about 40 other research ships, most of which are supported by Government funds; States and commercial organizations operate and charter others.

Recent technological advancements are rapidly providing many new tools to complement the capabilities of our research fleet. Manned deep submersibles like the ALVIN, shown in Figure XII.2 in chapter XII, are justifying the vision of their early advocates and are being used increasingly as scientists fully explore their potential. U.S.-built submersibles made over 300 research dives in 1967 as compared to 140 in 1965 and 230 in 1966. Towed unmanned vehicles are making it possible to examine the deep ocean

1 With annual budgets of more than $50,000 devoted to ocean investigations.

* Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and following universities: Oregon State, Washington, Texas A&M, California (La Jolla), Columbia, Rhode Island, Johns Hopkins, Hawaii, Miami (Florida), and New York.