TABLE 2.-Department of the Interior, oceanography budget, fiscal year 1966 Senator PELL. Thank you, Senator Kennedy. I also have a question from the minority that they have asked me to ask, and that is to what degree do you think these sea-grant colleges should be concerned with matters of water pollution in the Great Lakes and the other bodies of water within its jurisdiction? Dr. BATES. I think this is a very important area. Whether it is the Great Lakes or the oceans I think, as I pointed out in my statement, we must be concerned with using these resources as we now desire to use the lands, with a minimum of despoilation and a maximum control of pollution. Whether in the Great Lakes or the oceans, this program ought to put considerable stress on that aspect. Senator PELL. Thank you very much, Dr. Bates. Senator Kennedy, who is a member of this subcommittee considering the bill, and who is most interested in the subject, has a statement of his own which we are very honored to have. STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD M. KENNEDY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. I know you have some very able and capable witnesses, Mr Chairman, so I won't trespass too long on the time, but I would appreciate the opportunity to appear as a cosponsor and testify in support of S. 2439, a bill to establish national sea grant colleges. I especially want to commend the distinguished Junior Senator from Rhode Island for the outstanding work he has done in bringing this proposal before the Congress and for his deep understanding of the valuable contribution this program could make to our kr owledge and use of marine resources. Although he is not with us here today, special mention and our appreciation must also go to Athelstan F. Spilhaus, the "father" of the "sea grant college" concept. Professor Spilhaus, who teaches at the University of Minnesota, is a recognized expert in the areas of oceanography, aquaculture, and marine engineering. He has probably done as much as any individual to inspire interest in the proposal and to follow up on all the details necesary to translate thought. into action. Until just recently our approach to the sea and its resources had been primarily from the surface. We perfected the ships and facilities which operate from the surface to exploit the marine resources lying slightly below the surface. But there are, in addition, tremendous untapped resources along the ocean floor, in the ocean floor and throughout the expanse of the ocean body to be studied, developed and exploited for the benefit of the entire Nation, and indeed for all mankind. The incredible quantities of untapped human food resources within the sea stagger the imagination and illustrate the challenge the sea presents to man's technical and scientific ability. Our oceans produce about 400 million tons of animal protein each year-only about 10 million tons of which are being harvested annually. I find it frustrating to contemplate these enormous unutilized food resources lying so close at hand when at the same time more than half of the world's inhabitants are chronically hungry or constantly undernourished. Not only are we not tapping this unused potential, we are not even maintaining our relative position in the world. For the past 30 years the U.S. fish catch has remained static while fish use has increased. In 1964, we imported fish and fish products valuing nearly $600 million. In the last decade alone the United States has dropped from second to fifth place in the scale of world fish catch, and that part of our consumption which we import has increased by 25 percent. In part, this decline can be attributed to the enormous fleet of foreign fishing vessels, principally Japanese and Russian, which are operating off our shores taking fish resources which should be ours. But the blame must be placed as well upon our failure as a nation to take the aggressive and imaginative action necessary to make our fisheries competitive with other nations. But the statistics of food needs, fish catch and competitive position do not begin to tell the story of the present challenge and opportunity offered by the sea and its resources. The ocean remains our planet's last frontier. We have only just begun to study its physical and biological laws, to seek out its resources and to harness its power for our own needs. It is estimated that man obtains only 1 perecnt of his food from the sea. While America spends billions annually to probe the limitless and intangible expanse of space, we let three-quarters of our own globe lie fallow and practically unproductive. Yet we know from recent discoveries that vast mineral resources lie below the waters—the Continental Shelf is rich in petroleum and minerals; gold and phosphorite are already being mined off our western coasts; and who can deny that the mountains and valleys along the ocean floor contain the same riches as the mountains and valleys which form our land continent. And now our scientific and technical knowledge has advanced to a degree where we can begin to mine them. Many of us here in the Senate have worked hard on various pieces of legislation relating to the sea-legislation to develop and process fish protein concentrate, to improve the facilities and equipment of our merchant and fishing fleets, and to guarantee the health of our fishing industry against the encroaching forces of foreign competition. But all of these measures, while necessary and important, do not provide the basic comprehensive approach which we need. The 1958 Geneva Convention on the Law of the Sea in effect gives to those countries that first explore the depths of the sea the right to control them. If we are to become the master of the oceans we must develop and implement bold techniques for exploiting ocean resources. We need an intensive study and overhaul of our entire fishing and marine resource industries. We need a renaissance in oceanography, aquaculture and marine mining which will move us out of the dark ages of old-fashioned techniques, make our marine fleets again the most powerful in the world and establish the United States as the leader in marine and aquatechnology. Most important of all, however, we need to call dramatic attention to the existence of this last great frontier. Just as sputnik caused a revolution in space technology by concentrating national interest on the conquest of outer space, the same sort of national interest must be stimulated in the conquest of ocean space. To put it simply, there are just not enough Americans at the present time who know enough about or who are interested enough in the potential of the sea to make possible of the commitment of men and resources necessary to conquer the sea. We need a national program, a program which will stimulate our young people while in college to pursue careers in ocean science and technology, which will support basic research, and which will translate the results of this basic research into practical programs attractive to private industry. Taken together with Senator Magnuson's bill to create a national council to give policy guidance in the development of our marine resources, the establishment of a national sea grant college program can provide the foundation for this concerted national effort. There are already many institutions within the United States which are deeply involved in the study of marine science. Sea grant_colleges would be developed through these institutions, by providing Federal funds to support and augment programs which are presently in existence and by creating new programs. Through the facilities or a university, science and technology will be applied to such areas as underwater prospecting, pollution control, shipping and navigation, mining, food resources and development, forecasting of weather and climate, marine pharmocology and medicine and recreation. These sea grant colleges hopefully will do for the sea what land grant colleges did for the land. The land grant college movement caused an agricultural revolution in America. A small investment in agricultural research brought forth great returns in terms of increased production per acre, the release of workers from agriculture, higher output per man-hour, new methods of farming, marketing and conservation, and higher standards of living for the farmer and his family. These colleges are a continuing source of research and experimentation, keeping America's farmers aware of new techniques and knowledge in agricultural sciences and keeping our farmlands among the highest producers in the world. Similarly, a sea grant college would have a grant of seashore or lakeshore for experimental plots; it would receive Federal assistance for educational programs in the related fields of oceanography, aquaculture and marine mining for research facilities in the practical application of scientific research and techniques and for the creation of extension services to disseminate this information to all fishermen and oceanographers. We in Massachusetts are particularly well qualified to expand our already considerable efforts in these areas, and to benefit from this program. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has long been involved in the life of the sea. For centuries, fishing fleets and whaling schooners have sailed from the ports of Gloucester and Rockport, the South Shore and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Today these same ports are the home base for fleets which farm the Grand Banks and ́Atlantic waters. And these Massachusetts fleets account for a large portion-10 percent-of the total U.S. commercial fish catch, surpassed only by Alaska and California. However, today, instead of having the 20th century equivalent of the powerful formidable fleets of the 1800's, our fishermen are working with outdated equipment and inefficient facilities. We have the resources in Massachusetts to change this. Our State is one of the oldest and most respected centers of marine research in the country. In addition to research facilities within academic institutions such as Boston College, Boston University, MIT, Northeastern, and the University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts is proud of its special marine institutes such as the New England Aquarium, the Marine Biological Laboratories, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Mr. Chairman, I would like to offer for the record a copy of an excellent speech presented last week at the New England Aquarium by Dr. Bostwick H. Ketchum, associate director of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. I believe this speech illustrates quite well the long-term interest Massachusetts has had in the marine sciences and the extent of the State's oceanographic activities. (The speech of Dr. Ketchum follows :) MARINE SCIENCES IN NEW ENGLAND (By Dr. Bostwick Ketchum, Associate Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) New England has a long and distinguished history in conducting research in the marine sciences. One may think of history as looking back upon the past, but several recent activities suggest that the history of marine science in New England has been a stage of growth and preparation for the changes in marine science which may be just around the corner. One of these activities is the formation formally announced just yesterday, of the Massachusetts Association for Marine Sciences which includes as members several of the Massachusetts universities, the New England Aquarium, and both the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass. Another action which may have a profound effect on the development of marine sciences is the bill submitted in the Senate of the United States by Senator Pell of Rhode Island providing for the establishment of sea grant colleges and universities which could provide, for the exploration and the exploitation of the oceans, the same kind of stimulus that was given to the development of agriculture by the formation of land-grant colleges. Hearings on this bill are scheduled to be held at the University of Rhode Island on next Monday, May 2, 1966. These are merely two examples of the actions, both public and private, which may profoundly influence the future of marine sciences in New England. It may be worthwhile to review briefly the history of the development of marine sciences in order to provide perspective for the future. One important unique facet of this history has been the development in Woods Hole, Mass., of a group of laboratories which have established a center for marine research which has gained worldwide renown. Three separate and independent laboratories have been established and have flourished in this small village. These are the Biological Laboratory of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Woods Hole Oceano62-996-66- -11 graphic Institution. From the very beginning the relationships of these institutions with the universities, not only in New England but throughout the country, have been intimate and cordial. The personnel of these three laboratories encompass nearly every aspect of basic research concerning the oceans and the life that they contain, the seabed below, and the atmosphere above. The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory was the first to be established in Woods Hole. Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution was appointed the first U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871. Baird was well known to the scientific circles in this country and abroad as a naturalist, a student of classification and distribution of mammals and birds. Baird carried on extensive studies of the fisheries of New England before selecting Woods Hole as an ideal location for a permanent laboratory for the Fish Commission. The reasons for the selection are still valid today and explain in part why the other two laboratories also selected Woods Hole. The excellent harbor is suitable for the type of vessel used in oceanography and fisheries research and, since there is little land drainage, the sea water is relatively clean and unpolluted and remains at a nearly constant salinity throughout the year. It is thus an ideal source for the maintenance of living specimens under laboratory conditions. Cape Cod is the location of a summer temperature boundary, as those who swim in the waters both north and south of Cape Cod in the summertime well know. Many northern species of organisms have the southern limit of their distribution on the northern shores of Cape Cod while many southern species have their limit on the southern shores. Thus populations of two quite distinct sorts are available within a short distance of the laboratories. The open sea and the Gulf Stream are less than a day's sail from the docks in Woods Hole and consequently the scientist has a wide variety of marine conditions available and readily accessible. Woods Hole was always intimately associated with maritime affairs from the landing of Bartholomew Gosnold in May of 1602, 18 years before the Pilgrims landed at Provincetown and Plymouth, to the days when New England whaling captains fitted out and took on water at Bar Neck Wharf, the site of the present laboratory buildings. This history of the development of marine sciences in Woods Hole can be dated officially as starting with the establishment of the Biological Laboratories of the Fish Commission in 1875, though the laboratory building was not completed and occupied by the scientists until a decade later. At about this same time another great naturalist, Professor Agassiz of Harvard University, was anxious to provide his students with the opportunity to study living specimens of the abundant fauna of the marine environment. He established a small laboratory on Penikese Islands in Buzzards Bay, but found that the problems of transportation and access made its continuous use difficult. As an outgrowth of this marine station, however, a group of university professors with very meager financial assets established in March 1888 a new institution under the name of the Marine Biological Laboratory. From a modest shingled building erected during that first year, the MBL has grown to a position of international stature in biological research that is unequaled in the world. Many of the great American biologists of the present century have studied living marine specimens in the courses offered during the summertime or have conducted some of their research at the MBL. From the very beginning the MBL enjoyed the full support and cooperation of the Fish Commission Biological Laboratories and this spirit of cooperation has prevailed throughout the history of Woods Hole. The MBL continues to be primarily a summer laboratory offering space and facilities to university professors to conduct part of their research during the summer and offering courses in various aspects of marine biology to students drawn from colleges and universities throughout the country. The youngest of the three laboratories is the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution which was founded in 1930 as the result of a study conducted by a Committee on Oceanography of the National Academy of Sciences. Here again complete cooperation was offered by the existing laboratories to the fledgling newcomer. The Chairman of the Committee was Frank Lilly who was, at that time, director of the MBL. The secretary of the Committee was Henry B. Bigelow, professor of biology at Harvard University, who became the first Director of the Institution. The Oceanographic was founded and existed for about 10 years primarily as a summer marine station. This was because Dr. Bigelow, the first Director, did not believe that scientists could be content to live in the virtual isolation of a small New England village, a fact which was probably true at that time with the very limited size of the professional community in Woods |