Ocean Frontier

The human species seems headed for space, where the practical pickings are few and exceedingly hard to pick. Much more profitable, many scientists believe, would be a vigorous attack on the earth's own oceans. They cover more than two-thirds of the planet's surface, contain the bulk of its life. But most of their dark bottoms and middle depths are not so well known as the visible surface of the moon.

This week a committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences and headed by Geochemist Harrison Brown of Caltech sketched out a ten-year program for unlocking the ocean treasure house, which may contain as much of value to man as the earth's land. As the planet becomes more thickly populated, whole nations may get the bulk of their food from the fertile sea, as well as minerals and fuel in vast abundance. A quick and valuable byproduct of oceanography will be improved knowledge of the conditions governing submarine warfare. The committee did not mention, but was well aware, that Russia is pushing oceanography vigorously, has an estimated 14 large oceanographic research ships, while the U.S. has only half a dozen that are at all comparable.

The committee recommended a program of financial aid to universities to enable them to set up oceanographic departments, fellowships for research students, the construction of a vast array of research equipment ranging from special laboratory ships to stable floating research platforms. Cost: $58,360,000 in 1960, $651,410,000 over the next ten years.

Some specific projects:

P: Hard-shelled submarines that can operate down to the bottom of the ocean, learning much more by direct observation than can be learned by the instruments of surface ships.

P: Development of high seas engineering techniques and equipment for sampling the ocean bottom and drilling deep holes in it. It has been known for years that rich deposits of manganese, nickel and cobalt cover much of the ocean bottom.

P: A study of the possibilities of fertilizing the ocean surface water, so that more marine life can grow in it.

P: Projects to transplant useful organisms, e.g., U.S. oysters or lobsters, from one part of the ocean to another.

P: An elaborate system of drifting and anchored buoys that will report automatically and do for the ocean what weather observation stations do for the atmosphere over the land.

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