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The annual report of the President

to the Congress on the Nation's efforts to
comprehend, conserve, and use the sea.

April 1975

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Wasfiington. DC. 20402 - Price $1 45

Stock No. 040-000-00377-1

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Pursuant to P.L. 89-454, I am herewith transmitting the 1975
annual report on the Federal OceanProgram. The report represents
a summary of national efforts to comprehend, conserve and use the
sea, and lists significant activities of the Federal Government
related to the marine sciences in 1974 and early 1975.

During this period, the United States:

— intensified programs to appraise energy resources of the
oceans and assess the environmental impact of their development;

— expanded geological and geophysical research programs
which broaden our knowledge of the earth's evolutionary process
and provide information of practical importance;

— continued development of the capability to mine deep
seabed minerals without damage to the environment;

— enhanced opportunities for ocean-related recreational ac-
tivities;

— strengthened our ability to forecast marine environmental
conditions; and

— began formal negotiations with other nations in the UN Law
of the Sea Conference during a two-month session in Caracas,
Venezuela.

The report which I am transmitting emphasizes these
achievements and provides additional information on the Federal
Ocean Program budget for fiscal years 1974-1976, as well as on the
National Sea Grant Program and the status of the federally
supported marine research fleet.

Subsequent to the period covered by this report, there have been
several developments of importance to Federal Ocean Policy
including:

— the completion of three additional substantive negotiating
sessions of the UN Law of the Sea Conference;

— the enactment of the Fishery Conservation and Manage-
ment Act in April 1976 which, effective March 1, 1977, will extend
our fisheries jurisdiction to 200 miles.

— the leasing of Outer Continental Shelf areas for oil and gas
exploitation; and

— a budgetary increase for the Federal Ocean Program from
$872.5 million in FY 1976 to $956.6 million in FY 1977.

As indicated in the report, the Federal Ocean Program was
designed to advance and facilitate this nation's expanding uses of
the sea and its resources. As a major oceans user the United States
will continue to pursue forward-looking programs, aware of the
need to safeguard the quality of the marine environment and
conscious of the need to cooperate with other nations on programs
and policies that will advance our interests and those of the world
community.

/^^.^ ^. ^^

THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 1977

IV

PREFACE

A Report to the President From the
Science and Technology Policy Office,
National Science Foundation,
April 1975

THIS REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT ON THE FEDERAL OCEAN
PROGRAM is prepared in accordance with Public Law 89-454, the
Marine Resources and Engineering Development Act of 1966, which
states that the President shall transmit to the Congress an annual
report including: (a) A comprehensive description of the activities
and the accomplishments of all the agencies and departments of the
United States in the field of marine sciences during the preceeding
fiscal year; fb) an evaluation of such activities in terms of the
objectives set forth pursuant to Public Law 89-454; (c) such
recommendations for legislation as the President may consider
necessary or desirable for the attainment of the objectives of Public
Law 89-454; and (d) an estimate of funding requirements of each
agency and department of the Federal Government for marine
science activities during the succeeding fiscal year.

This report on the Federal Ocean Program is submitted to the
Congress in response to that requirement.

CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION: OCEAN MANAGEMENT AND

THE LAW OF THE SEA 1

The Third United Nations Conference on the

Law of the Sea 2

Living Resources Management 5

Program Emphasis 6

About This Report 8

II. OFFSHORE ENERGY-RELATED ACTIVITIES 9

Accelerated Leasing of the Outer Continental

Shelf 9

OCS Environmental Studies 12

OCS Oil and Gas Assessment 14

Regulatory Activities 15

Supporting Efforts 17

Deepwater Ports 24

Offshore Powerplants 26

Alternate Energy Sources 28

III. MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS 31

The Generation of the Sea Floor and

Processes Operating at Ridge Crests 32

Structure and Age of the Ocean Lithosphere 36

Destruction of Ocean Crust 39

Structure and History of Passive Continental Margins 41
Paleoclimatology and the Paleo-Oceanographic

History of the Oceans 43

Resources of the Sea Floor 46

Processes and Properties of Modern Sedimentation ... 48

IV. MARINE RECREATION 53

Planning 53

Management Support 54

Boating 57

Recreational Fishing 59

V. MARINE ENVIRONMENT OBSERVATION AND PREDIC-
TION,
AND SUPPORTING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

63 Mapping and Charting 63

Activities in the Coastal Environment 66

Major Research Projects 71

Data Management 76

Instrumentation 78

Data Buoys 79

Remote Sensing 80

vui

APPENDICES

A. Federal Ocean Program, Fiscal Years 1974, 1975, and 1976 83

B. National Sea Grant Program 89

C. Status of the Federally Supported Fleet 97

D. A Selection of Laws Enacted by the 93rd Congress in

1974 Affecting Ocean Activities 104

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chapter I

INTRODUCTION: OCEAN MANAGEMENT
AND THE LAW OF THE SEA

National policies and programs, if they are to be meaningful, must
be responsive to new national needs and changing priorities.
Recently the United States and many other nations of the world have
been confronted by the energy crisis and by the prospect of mounting
food and mineral shortages. These events havegiven newimpetus to
the development of ocean resources. Yet, at the same time, there is a
continuing concern about the impact of development on the quality
of the environment.

In this country, the need for accelerated ocean development and
the necessity of preserving the environment are recognized in
Congress and at the highest policy levels of the executive branch.
This recognition is reflected in the rapid expansion of Federal Ocean
Program activities directed to both objectives. Federal agency
efforts directed to environmental preservation have now been
greatly augmented by intensive new environmental assessment
programs to lay the basis for marine fossil-fuel and mineral
development.

The beginning of commercial-scale operations for the mining of
deep-ocean minerals, however, depends partly on the resolution of
law of the sea issues. Such issues are also of great significance to the
development and proper management of the living resources of the
ocean.

The Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea

In 1970 the U.N. General Assembly scheduled a comprehensive
conference on the Law of the Sea to begin in 1973. Following a short
organizing session in December 1973, the first substantive session of
the Law of the Sea conference was l;eld in Caracas, Venezuela, from
June 20 to August 29, 1974. With the development of offshore oil, the
immiment exploitation of manganese nodules, the use of 300,000-ton
tankers, and fishing fleets capable of exploiting living marine
resources to extinction, increasing demands are being placed upon
ocean resources. Therefore, the necessity arises for a multinational
treaty to reconcile the traditional use of the oceans with these new
demands. Unfortunately, a comprehensive treaty was not achieved.

Nevertheless, the session at Caracas accomplished a great deal: it
formulated a systematic framework necessary to reach an ac-
comodation. The conference papers clarify what the structure and
general content of the Law of the Sea Treaty is likely to be when it is
finally agreed upon.

The work of the session was divided among three committees.
Committee I dealt with the seabed beyond the limits of national
jurisdiction; Committee II dealt with the traditional law of the sea
issues; and Committee III dealt with the problems of marine
pollution and marine scientific research.

SEABED

Almost the entire range of issues under Committee I's mandate had
been reflected in alternative treaty articles prepared by the old
Seabed Committee. The exception was the preparation of treaty
articles on rules and regulations for deep seabed mining; a critical
element of the U.S. deep-seabed position.

During the Caracas session, the newly emerging nations agreed on
a single text for basic conditions of exploitation, which would permit
the International Seabed Authority to enter into a variety of legal
arrangements, provided it maintained "direct and effective control at
all times." Draft rules and regulations were added by the United
States, Japan, and eight European countries.

TRADITIONAL ISSUES

The traditional law of the sea issues are within the purview of
Committee II. The Committee summarized the work of 13 working
papers into a single working paper containing 243 provisions
divided into 13 parts. It is the opinion of the chairman that this
document will serve as a basis for future work toward final
agreement. The 13 parts are covered in the following paragraphs.

Territorial Sea — A variety of articles were introduced that for the

most part, parallel the provisions of the 1958 Territorial Sea
Convention. There was almost no reference to any other seaward
limit except the 12-mile territorial sea. The issues that stand in the
way of an agreement are unimpeded transit of straits and the 200-
mile economic zone. There are 116 straits that are more than 6 and
less than 24 miles wide. Passage through these areas would be
influenced by the change to a 12-mile territorial sea.

Contiguous Zone — Under the 1958 Convention on the Territorial
Sea and the Contiguous Zone, the maximum seaward limit of a
contiguous zone is 12 miles. Some states would like it extended;
others feel it is unnecessary if there is a 12-mile territorial sea.

Straits Used for Navigational Purposes — In general, there was a
trend toward unimpeded passage through straits. The United States
made it clear that it wanted unimpeded passage for all vessels
through and over straits used for international navigation.

High Seas — The new proposals included references to the
suppression of illicit traffic from the high seas, hot pursuit, and flag-
state duties, as well as conservation of living resources beyond the
economic zone. Most states wish to maintain the freedom of the high
seas, but difficulties arise from the legal status of the economic zone.

Landlocked Countries and Shelf-Locked Countries — Most coastal
states readily acknowledge the need for positive action on the
problem of access to the sea for landlocked countries. The difficulty
is one of emphasis, detail, and implementation, matters that many
landlocked countries are reluctant to leave to later bilateral
arrangements.

Landlocked countries have other problems in relation to deep-
seabed mining and living resources in the economic zones of
neighboring coastal states. Another problem concerns a state with a
small coastline facing the coasts of others; it could suffer a
disadvantage from the establishment of an economic zone by
neighboring states.

Archipelagos — The problems to be solved before an agreement can
be reached are (1) a clear definition of each area and the rights of the
archipelagic nations in the waters between the islands and (2) the
rights of navigation and overflight through archipelagic waters,
large areas of which are now high seas.

Economic Zone and Continental Shelf— The major problems
encountered in the negotiations on the economic zone center on the
following points:

[1) Do the rights of coastal states extend beyond 200 miles where
the continental margin extends beyond that limit? The United States
proposed an accommodation that includes revenue sharing and
coastal state jurisdiction over the continental margin (exclusive of

the water column) seaward of the eronomic zone.

(2) What are the duties of the coastal states with respect to
conservation and full use of the fish stocks within the economic
zone? Three major approaches seem to have emerged. One is
complete exclusivity with no coastal state duties. Another is the
United States' approach, which couples exclusive coastal state
regulation with conservation and full use duties and special
treatment for anadromous and highly migratory species. A third,
which emphasizes the role of regional organizations, is advocated by
eight European countries.

(3) What principles apply to the delimitation of the economic zone
or^ continental shelf between adjacent or opposite states? A
comprehensive law of the sea convention is not suitable for dealing
with details that are essentially bilateral problems.

(4) What is the legal status of the economic zone? Some classic
high-seas freedoms will be limited and others retained. Some nations
want only defined rights to be exercised, others want all residual
rights to reside in the coastal state.

Regime of Islands — This part of the working paper tries to come to
grips with a fundamental problem in all of the law of the sea,
provoked by the extensionof the breadth of jurisdictional zones: The
length of a coastline and its exposure to the open sea bear no
necessary relationship to abstract equitable criteria for appor-
tioning ocean areas and resources. Should a coastal state be entitled
to exercise the same jurisdiction in the large marine area surroun-
ding a small island as it would if the area were adjacent to a
continent?

MARINE POLLUTION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

The third committee divided into two informal working groups,
one on pollution and one on research.

Marine Pollution — The group working on marine pollution entered
an area of concern that had not been considered at previous law of
the sea conferences. The Committee began work to resolve the
differences on monitoring and rights to set standards and enforce
them. The trend seems to have moved away from the setting of
standards by coastal states, especially with regard to construction
and design, and toward the international setting of standards. The
group is attempting to express in legal terms the underlying need to
harmonize economic and environmental interests.

Scientific Research and Transfer of Technology— Because the
group would not come to an agreement on a definition that would
include research for commercial purposes, it put that matter aside
and began work on the general principles for conducting research
and the obligations for international and regional cooperation. The

principles include a requirement that research be conducted only for
peaceful purposes, a clause dealing with noninterference with other
uses, a requirement that research comply with environmental
regulations, and agreement that research activities not form the legal
basis for any claim to any part of the marine environment or its
resources.

Problems arose when the group began work on the more important
issues of research in the economic zone. Four trends emerged: (1]
explicit consent of the coastal state is required; (2) consent cannot be
withheld when certain conditions are met in lieu of consent; (3) an
agreed-upon set of international obligations will be placed upon the
state conducting the research; (4) total freedom to carry out research
in the economic zone will be granted, except research aimed at
exploration or exploitation of living and nonliving resources, which
shall be subject to the consent of the coastal state.

DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

At the Caracas session representatives of 30 countries held
constructive meetings to discuss provision for a dispute-settlement
chapter of the convention. The 11-point paper that these sessions
produced will probably stimulate much discussion and study before
the next session of the conference is convened.

The United States went to Caracas prepared to negotiate a
comprehensive ocean-law treaty. The Caracas meeting set up the
framework, the issues, and the alternatives, but the treaty was not
negotiated.

Living Resources Management

A better knowledge of the abundance and movement of fishing
stocks is essential if we are to manage the living resources inhabiting
the 200-mile Economic Resource Zone proposed at the Law of the Sea
Conference. To provide the data needed for fishing management, The
Department of Commerce's (DOC's] National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration (NOAA) is intensifying its Marine
Resources Monitoring, Assessment and Prediction (MARMAP)
program.

MARMAP, conducted by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), collects and analyzes stock-assessment informa-
tion required to manage and allocate fish and shellfish resources off
U.S. coasts. These recourses are subject to competitive harvesting
by foreign and domestic fishermen; 14,000 U.S. vessels of over 5
gross tons and as many as 1,000 foreign vessels, most over 250 tons,
fish off U.S. coasts. This situation has led to overfishing of at least 10
major commercial stocks (Alaskan pollock, California sardine,

haddock, halibut, herring, ocean perch. Pacific mackerel, sablefish,
yellowfin sole, and yellowtail flounder], resulting in serious
economic consequences. MARMAP is a nationwide resource
assessment system that annually provides systematic assessments
of the principal fish and shellfish stocks of interest to the United
States and warnings and forecasts of changes in these stocks. This
information is used to attempt to restore overfished stocks to former
abundance levels and to assure optimal yeilds from other stocks.

In fiscal year 1975, MARMAP groundfish and ichthyoplankton
surveys, were conducted with six nations, the U.S.S.R., Poland,
France, Canada, Federal Republic of Germany, and the German
Democratic Republic. These surveys were made in the northwest
Atlantic from Greenland to Cape Hatteras as part of a joint
assessment effort of the International Commission for the
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries. The State of South Carolina par-
ticipated in surveying the area from Cape Hatteras to the Florida
Keys. Groundfish surveys were also conducted in the Mississippi
Delta region, and there were surveys of small areas in the northeast
Pacific off Alaska and in the East Bering Sea. Status-of-stock
surveys were continued on important stocks including squid,
salmon, herring, menhaden, shrimp, king and tanner crabs, ocean
perch, north Pacific groundfish, sablefish, California current coastal
species and tuna (in cooperation with the State of California],
Atlantic groundfish. Gulf shrimp, and croaker. MARMAP survey
data were used by U.S. negotiators to support limiting foreign
fishing for crab, shrimp, and groundfish in the northeast Pacific. The
first survey of the deep-sea red crab was made to determine its
distribution and abundance on the continental slope from Maryland
to Georges Bank. MARMAP surveys also resulted in the issuance of
two "Red Flag" reports describing extensive contamination of
western Atlantic surface waters with tar clumps and plastic
particles.

Program Emphasis

The fiscal year 1976 Federal Ocean Program budget request is $90
million higher than the fiscal year 1975 estimated budget and over
$200 million higher than the fiscal year 1974 estimate. The trend of
the program budget over this 2-year period reflects accelerated
activity in areas of major national concern. In both years, the rate of
growth in expenditures for programs relating to energy and resource
development and to environmental protection was greater than the
growth rate of the program as a whole. The budgetary impact of
high-priority energy-related studies was especially dramatic. The
starting costs of these new efforts, instituted in fiscal year 1975,

account in large measure for the proportionately high increase in
that year's program budget.

The emphasis on energy-related programs will continue in fiscal
year 1976. Department of the Interior (DOI] funds allocated to
nonliving resource programs will be augmented by $32 million, most
of which will be expended on Outer-Continental-Shelf (OCS)
environmental assessment programs to determine the impact of
fossil-fuel development. Another prominent program designed to
resolve problems between environmental protection and the use of
marine resources is the Coastal Zone Management program of
NOAA. The funds made available through this program for coastal
management grants to U.S. coastal States and territories will be
increased significantly. A major use of the grants is expected to be
the support of projects to minimize adverse impacts of OCS oil and
gas development on the coastal zone.

In related efforts, the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] is
expanding its studies of the environmental effects of energy
development. The Energy Research and Development Administra-
tion (ERDA) is accelerating its efforts to determine the best sites for
coastal powerplants, to understand the environmental effects of
nuclear-power use, and to develop new methods of generating
energy from the ocean's dynamic processes.

Funds allocated to the development of mineral resources have been
comparatively small, but are being substantially augmented in fiscal
year 1976. NOAA's new Deep Ocean Mining Environmental Study
(DOMES], conducted at prospective manganese nodule mining sites,
will be quadrupled by an increment of $3 million. Expenditures for
living-resource conservation and management programs will also
rise significantly. The major increases in this category will be for the
assessment of commercial fishery stocks, research directed to the
protection of marine mammals and endangered species, and for the
enforcement of fishery treaties by the U.S. Coast Guard, (USCG).

Other areas of the marine program have not been subject to the
same compelling pressures for expanded activity. Expenditures in
these areas, however, are being maintained at levels necessary to
assure the Nation's security and to provide essential support for
future development and environmental preservation. For example,
budgets for national security programs, ocean observation and
prediction, mapping and charting, and ocean research will all be
modestly increased. The SEASAT project of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the design and
construction of an ocean-observation satellite is entering its
fabrication phase and will receive a substantial increment. Con-
sidering the fiscal year 1976 program as a whole and the national
economic framework within which it was developed, the program

level requested is a realistic attempt to advance toward immediate as
well as long-term goals.

About This Report

This report features Federal Ocean Program thrusts to preserve
the ocean environment while developing its nonliving resources.
Included in this theme is a chapter on geological and geophysical
research programs, which, in addition to expanding our knowledge
of the earth's evolutionary processes, are providing practical
information useful in locating sea-floor oil and mineral deposits, in
selecting sits for structures resting on the seabed, and in research on
climate changes. The report also includes, for the first time, Federal
agency programs to enhance opportunities for ocean-related
recreational activities. Programs of marine environmental observa-
tion, prediction, mapping and research needed in support of
shipping, coastal zone management, and almost all other ocean-
related activities are described in the final chapter. Appendices A, B,
C, and D consist, respectively, of ocean program budget tables, a
summary of Sea Grant program activities, the status of the research
fleet, and a selection of laws enacted in 1974 affecting marine
activities.

chapter U

OFF SHORE ENERGY-RELATED ACTIVITIES

The Oil Embargo of late 1973 and early 1974 and the ensuing
increases in the costs of imported oil gave a dramatic boost to public
interest in offshore energy-related activities. Among these ac-
tivities, the greatest attention has been focused on OCS oil and gas
resources. The development of these resources offers the best
prospects for reducing U.S. dependence on foreign petroleum
imports in the foreseeable future. With the high priority for
accelerating development, every attempt is being made to minimize
threats to the marine environment resulting from development
operations. Although not so well publicized, several other efforts are
also underway to augment our energy supplies.

Superport legislation has been enacted that aims at lowering
petroleum import costs and preventing damage to the ocean
environment from port operations. An intensified effort is being
made to harness the dynamic and thermal processes of the oceans to
provide energy. Yet another part of the accelerating Federal program
devoted to OCS energy-related activities consists of environmental
assessments to establish the information base needed in selecting
sites for offshore power facilities.

Accelerated Leasing of the Outer Continental Shelf

The need to explore and develop OCS petroleum resources in
support of the Nation's growing economy became increasingly
evident during the late 1960's. In a 1971 energy message to Congress,
the President noted a need to accelerate OCS oil and gas leasing. He
subsequently directed to the Secretary of the Interior to initiate steps
to triple annual OCS lease offerings by 1979, from about 1 million
acres at the time to 3 million each year. With the advent of the
embargo, the President called for still further acceleration of the
lease offerings as part of a program to attain greater energy self-

sufficiency. The goal of the present program is to provide a
maximum sustainable level of leasing consistent with industry
capability for exploration and efficient development.

The Secretary of the Interior has responsibility for the conserva-
tion and development of mineral resources on Federal lands of the
United States, including those of the Nation's OCS. Under his
direction DOI's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has general
responsibility for administration of the OCS lease system, including
all aspects of planning and preparation for lease sales, conducting
them, issuing and terminating leases, and collecting associated
revenues. The Department's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
provides technical support to BLM for those phases of the lease
system involving the assessment and classification of mineral
values. The USGS also has responsibilities for regulating presale
mineral exploration; for supervising post sale lease tract exploration,
development, and production, and for collecting rents and royalties.
The OCS activities of BLM and USGS parallel their responsibilities
for mineral leasing and development of onshore Federal lands. OCS
activities involve many aspects of the Federal Ocean Program,
include many cooperative efforts, and are complemented by
supporting services and regulatory programs of other Federal
agencies.

The goals of the BLM and USGS programs are

(1) To provide for orderly and timely development of OCS mineral
and energy resource potentials

(2) To protect and maintain a clean OCS environment

(3) To assure safety and maximum efficiency of industry opera-
tions

(4) To obtain a fair return from industry operations for the Federal

Government

Components of the lease system, management program, and
concurrent industry activities are summarized in table 1. Bureau
responsibilities are indicated parenthetically.

Figure 1 is the tentative lease schedule issued in late 1974 in
response to the President's call for maximum acceleration of lease
offerings. This schedule, based chiefly on general USGS resource
assessments, technological considerations, and BLM economic
analyses, is subject to continuing review and change. One purpose of
releasing schedules, such as this one, is to solicit views for
incorporation in revisions. One widely publicized example of a
change in this schedule was the postponement of all activities
relating to a proposed sale along the Mid-Atlantic coast pending the
Supreme Court's decision on the claim of Atlantic States to OCS
resource jurisdiction.

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TABLE 1.— STEPS OF LEASE PROGRAM

Federal activities Industry Activities

Develop and maintain tentative
lease-sale schedules (BLM, DOI)

Issue geophysical exploration permits (USGS) Geophysical

exploration

Initiate baseline environmental studies (BLM)

Issue calls for nominations (BLM, DOI) Nominate tracts

Make tract selections (BLM, USGS)

Prepare environmental analyses (BLM)

Issue notice of sale (BLM, DOI)

Make presale evaluation (USGS, BLM) Submit bids

Conduct sale (BLM)

Review sale (BLM, USGS)

Issue leases, collect associated
revenues (BLM, DOI)

Prepare and issue operating orders (USGS) Prepare and submit

development plans

Review and grant or deny development plans (USGS) Exploration, development,

production

Make inspections, monitor operations (USGS)

Collect production revenues (USGS)

OCS Environmental Studies

A prerequisite to expanded offshore petroleum development is the
acquisition of knowledge on the environmental effects of develop-
ment. BLM has accelerated its environmental studies program to
assess the effect of the OCS leasing program on the environment. The
objectives of this program are:

(1) To provide information that will enable the department to
make sound management decisions regarding the development of
offshore mineral and energy resources

(2) To provide a basis for predicting the impact of oil and gas
development on the marine environment

(3) To provide data that will result in the improvement of leasing
regulations, operating regulations, and operating orders

The program consists of separate environmental studies in each
area being considered for possible oil and gas leasing. In April 1975,
such studies were in progress in existing and prospective lease areas
off the Florida-Alabama-Mississippi, southern Texas, southern and

12

western Alaska, and northern and middle Atlantic coasts. Each
study is conducted in four phases:

(1) A survey of existing environmental data to identify gaps that
require investigation

(2) Baseline sampling and analysis of chemical, biological, and
physical conditions that characterize the area

(3) Detailed investigations of special problems (such as toxicity of
drilling muds and toxicity of hydrocarbons on shrimp larvae]

(4] Monitoring selected environmental parameters.

To aid in planning the studies, DOI has established a Research
Advisory Board to BLM composed of representatives from EPA,
NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). USGS, and each of
the coastal States. A task group of representatives from NOAA,
USGS, EPA, and FWS aids BLM in proposal evaluations. To
coordinate local efforts, BLM has established Environmental
Assessment Teams in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Anchorage, and
New York City.

The first baseline sampling effort was initiated during the spring
of 1974, through a contract with a consortium of Florida universities,
the State Universities System for Investigating the Ocean. By the
end of the year the data collection had been completed, analysis had
begun, and succeeding phases of special studies and monitoring
were in advanced planning stages.

A second baseline sampling effort was started in the Gulf of
Alaska during July 1974. In this effort NOAA has the lead role for
data and sample collection and analysis. It includes cooperative and
contractual arrangements with USGS, FWS, the University of
Alaska, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife. Com-
parable arrangements exist for studies begun during the fall of 1974
off the south Texas coast where USGS has the lead role and the State
of Texas and its universities are involved.

On the East coast, off the North and Mid-Atlantic States, USGS
and NOAA have redirected existing programs and have begun
collecting data as part of a broader, integrated effort involving
planned contracts with coastal universities, consortia, or others.

NOAA's National Ocean Survey is preparing bathymetric maps
for each study area in support of the leasing program. Existing
information is being used in the preparation of these maps, but
where it is insufficient, as in the Gulf of Alaska, new data are being
required. As they are processed, the baseline data obtained during
the field and associated laboratory investigations are being
submitted to NOAA's Environmental Data Services, where they are
available to the general public.

13

BLM is continuing its studies in other areas proposed for leasing,
to determine the need for baseline physical, biological, chemical, and
geological information in each. These studies, supplemented by
information resulting from the baseline sampling activities, form the
basis for the preparation of draft environmental impact assessments
supporting each sale.

OCS Oil and Gas Assessment

In addition to collecting information on sea-floor stability and
other conditions that contribute to the baseline environmental
studies, USGS has accelerated efforts to acquire knowledge that
may be used to improve resource estimates in proposed lease areas
and for the assessment of tract values. Special emphasis is being
placed on acquiring data for public dissemination on deep structures
and sediment layers that may indicate the existence of oil and gas
reservoirs. To assure that the maximum information is available for
making tract selections and presale evaluations, USGS also obtains
large amounts of data gathered by and for the oil industry. New
regulations prepared during 1974 aim at expediting the acquisition
of such industry data. The combination of public and private data
provides USGS with better information on which to base resource
evaluations than is available to any single company of the oil
industry.

Among the most useful and widely used tools in the search for
offshore oil and gas has been deep-penetration (common-depth-
point) seismic reflection profiling. Prior to 1974, the only records of
this type available to USGS were those obtained from industry.
Although used in making tract selections and evaluations, this
proprietary information was necessarily withheld from public
scrutiny because of the large private investments involved. To
overcome limitations on the use of the industry profiles and to
acquire additional knowledge of resource potentials, USGS con-
tracted for three profiles between Massachusetts and New fersey
extending from near shore across the Atlantic Continental Shelf to
deep water. Analyses of the information thus obtained were issued
during 1974. USGS subsequently contracted for four additional
profiles across the Atlantic Continental Shelf and Slope, obtained
profiles across the Blake Plateau to the east of Florida and Georgia,
and installed a seismic system aboard the USGS research vessel S. P.
Lee for use in obtaining profiles of the West coast and Alaska
Continental Margins. USGS, as well as industry, is using the bright-
spot technique and other forms of computer analyses to get
maximum information relating to oil and gas potentials from the
millions of data bits produced each hour by the seismic systems.

14

USGS has also accelerated the collection and analysis of magnetic,
gravity, high-resolution (shallow-penetration), seismic, and other
geophysical data that provide additional knowledge of subsurface
structures and thereby aid in locating and assessing oil and gas
potentials.

To improve our geomagnetic knowledge of the Atlantic margin, a
contract was negotiated with a private company to make a detailed
aeromagnetic survey of the region from the Canadian border to
northern Florida during early 1975. The analysis and compilation of
the survey results by USGS scientists is expected to provide a
general picture of magnetic characteristics that is more accurate and
more detailed than any now available. The picture, combined with
other results of geophysical exploration, will provide further
information on the depth of crystalline rocks forming the basement
beneath sediments of the continental shelf.

Geophysical exploration provides structural targets, but it is only
a portion of the information base needed to find and assess
petroleum potentials. Of comparable importance are data on the
nature of the rocks that compose the structures. Reliable
stratigraphic data are obtainable only by drilling. Information of
this type is abundant in the central Gulf of Mexico and to a lesser
degree off the coast of southern California, where drilling and
development are underway. Drillers are required to make the data
available to the USGS. The lack of comparable information for
"frontier" areas, areas where no deep holes have been drilled, such as
the Atlantic Continental Shelf and the Gulf of Alaska, constitutes a
major handicap in assessing oil and gas potentials of these areas.

To be of value in assessing oil potential, basinal stratigraphic data
need not come from the structures within the basin in which
exploitable deposits tend to accumulate. In 1974 a petroleum
industry group, with USGS participation, proposed and sponsored
the drilling of a"public stratigraphic test hole" in the frontier area off
the coast of southern Texas at a site considered unlikely for a
petroleum discovery on the basis of geophysical data. The data were
used by USGS for evaluating tracts to be leased and by companies in
preparing bids. Industry has since proposed the drilling of similar
stratigraphic test holes for other prospective frontier areas off the
Atlantic and Alaska coasts.

Regulatory Activities

The Conservation Division of USGS administers regulations that
govern drilling and producing operations to assure human and
environmental safety. In collaboration with others, USGS prepares
and issues OCS orders, which deal with the specific problems for

15

each area and outline conditions and standards that must be met in
operations. The regulations require that USGS area supervisors
approve all exploration, development, and production designs and
operating plans. The supervisors have wide authority for
negotiating changes in designs and plans, for rejecting them, and for
controlling rates of production as they relate to safety, resource
conservation, and environmental protection.

The regulations and orders are subject to continuing review and
updating at both national and local levels. USGS supports studies
conducted by an advisory group of the National Academy of
Engineering and by other consultants to aid in the development and
review of regulations. A working group under the direction of the
USGS Associate Director considers and initiates pertinent
regulatory and other administrative action based on recommenda-
tions of the studies and on the advice of other public groups. During
1974 the USGS working group devoted particular attention to
recommendations of two studies: one funded by the National Science
Foundation (NSF) and prepared at the University of Oklahoma,
published during November 1973,* and the other sponsored by the
Council on Environmental Quality and published in 1974.**

USGS issued a general revision of its OCS orders for the Gulf of
Mexico area, incorporating recommendations of the national studies
and the results of local experience and technological development.
One major change added supervisory authority to control rates of
production from wells tapping oil fields that extend beyond the
limits of a single lease tract to achieve maximum recovery and
conservation of reserves. Another was the inclusion of a number of
precautions and preventive measures designed to avoid mishaps in
the event that hydrogen sulfide, a major hazard in the Gulf region,
should be encountered during drilling. USGS has placed emphasis
on building a competent and capable staff of engineers and
supporting scientists to review designs and plans as a preventive
measure against major accidents, such as the spill that took place in
the Santa Barbara Channel off California during 1969 and several
less-publicized fires and spills in the gulf.

To assure acceptance of approved designs, plans, and safe
practices, USGS has also increased its inspection force, which in the
gulf region now keeps seven contract helicopters in nearly
continuous operation. The inspecting teams have broad authority to
shut down operations or initiate remedial action for noncompliance

* Encir^y Under the Oceans, University of Oklahoma Press.

** OCS Oil and Gas— An Environmental Assessment, Council on Environmental
Quality, U.S. Government Printing Office.

16

with regulations or other discrepancies found during their inspec-
tions. Required quarterly failure-analysis reports, accident-
investigation procedures, and maintenance of a safety alert system
complement the inspection function to assure the maximum safety of
offshore operations.

The lease system and the successful exploration, development,
and production of offshore oil and gas depend on the support of many
other parts of the Federal Ocean Program. Among these are weather
and oceanographic prediction, pollution control, fisheries manage-
ment, ocean technology, and transportation.

Supporting Efforts

EPA administers an interagency research and development
program on the health and ecological effects of increased domestic
energy production. The principal agencies involved in the marine
and estuarine part of the program are EPA, NOAA, the National
Bureau of Standsrds (NBS), ERDA, the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, and FWS. This program includes
identifying and quantifying pollutants related to energy production
or use, as well as improving pollution-measurement capabilities. In
this area, there are two objectives: to accelerate development of new
and improved sampling and analysis methods for energy-related
pollutants and to identify, measure, and monitor pollutants
associated with rapid implementation of national energy goals.

Another program area is concerned with the ecological effects of
pollutants and heat emitted from energy operations and the
transport processes of these pollutants through air, water, and soil
from their sources to their destination (fate) in man and the
environment. These studies also involve determining any physical
and chemical change in the pollutants occurring during transport.

Studies of the ecological effects of energy systems address the
environmental aspects of watershed (freshwater), marine, and
terrestrial ecosystems. Near-term marine research will establish
background contaminant levels in both ocean-dwelling organisms
and their habitats. Research will focus on a study of one major
eastern U.S. coastal area, where deepwater ports and oil rigs may be
located, to develop baseline data for determining the effects on
marine life of deepwater ports, petroleum extraction and conversion
operations, and electric powerplants.

NOAA and USGS continue to strengthen programs devoted to the
study and prediction of storms, earthquakes and associated waves,
currents, and resonant effects, which pose hazards to offshore
petroleum-industry operations. Increasing success in applying the
results of these programs was illustrated in late 1974 when the

17

timely prediction of a hurricane approaching the Gulf of Mexico
permitted the oil industry to shut down operations and move all
personnel to shore. As a result, the hurricane caused no loss of life or
identifiable pollution related to offshore petroleum operations.
NOAA has now given high priority to the placement of data buoys
(described elsewhere] in areas of present and proposed offshore
leasing to aid in making weather and oceanographic forecasts.

In joint efforts with others, NASA is conducting a variety of
studies to apply remote-sensing techniques and principles to the
analysis of wave geometries, knowledge of which is necessary in the
planning and design of offshore drilling and production structures.
Examples include NASA support of a project at the Virginia
Institute of Marine Sciences, funded by the NOAA Sea Grant Office,
and completed during 1974, to produce a continental-shelf wave-
refraction model for the east coast between Delaware and North
Carolina; the development of a comparable model for the proposed
Baltimore Canyon Trough exploration area, scheduled for comple-
tion during mid-1975; a cooperative study with the Naval
Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) on the use of laser
profilometers and aerial photography in analyzing relations
between sea-floor relief and wave geometries; and the testing of
microwave-imaging radar systems that may be used to achieve day-
night, all-weather wave-measurement capability.

Regulatory and enforcement programs of EPA also provide direct
support for marine science and engineering activities. The primary
components of enforcement activity involve monitoring and
enforcing compliance with oil-spill-prevention requirements; toxic,
pretreatment and marine sanitation requirements, aquaculture and
sewage sludge disposal permits under the Federal Water Pollution
Control Administration [FWPCA], as well as enforcing the ocean
dumping regulations of the Maritime Protection, Research and
Sanctuaries Act of 1972. In addition, significant progress was made
in fiscal year 1975 in implementing the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program to regulate all major
industrial, municipal, and other source point discharges of
pollutants into the navigable water of the United States, including
the contiguous zone.

In addition to its review role in the preparation of environmental
impact assessments, EPA sets discharge and pollution standards,
issues permits for any planned waste discharge from offshore
installations, conducts special field investigations for enforcement
actions, and aids in the preparation of pertinent operating
regulations and orders administered by USGS. For example, EPA
has established Federal standards of performance for marine
sanitation devices. Coast Guard certified marine sanitation devices

18

installed on all vessels shall be designed and operated to either
retain, dispose of, or discharge sewage in accordance with the
standard. If the device is of a discharge type, the standard
establishes limits on quantitative fecal coliform bacterial count and
on suspended solids. In support of its standards and permit
responsibilities, EPA conducts and supports a variety of studies to
determine water-quality standards and the effects of introducing
wastes and pollutants into the environment. The Water Quality
Standards Program is operated in conjunction with the States and
develops water-quality criteria applicable to navigable waters.
Plans for implementation and enforcement of the criteria are
developed, and water-quality standards based on consideration of
their use for fish and wildlife, recreational, agricultural, and
industrial purpose are established.

EPA's Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory, Edison,
N.J., is developing and testing technology to prevent offshore
pollution and to detect, control, and treat discharges of oil and other
wastes. Its activities include development, improvement, and
evaluation of oil and hazardous material spill control, cleanup,
recovery, containment devices, and systems. The laboratory also
investigates improved techniques for identifying, tracing, and
containing waste plumes for immobilizing, collecting, degrading, or
detoxifying oil and other hazardous spilled materials.

A full-scale prototype system using polyurethane foam chips was
fabricated and demonstrated, and it showed enhanced operational
capabilities. Under calm-sea conditions this system can recover
essentially 100 percent of the oil encountered. Under a simulated 1-
foot harbor chop at 3 knots, the recovery approximated 65 percent of
the oil encountered. In fiscal year 1976 this system will be evaluated
in oil spills of opportunity.

Several projects in the area of high-current oil-spill containment
are being developed by EPA. One concept, a hydrofoil approach, has
demonstrated the capability of containing and recovering oil at 6
knots. No such capability exists elsewhere.

A major effort is underway by EPA to develop a pollution-control
policy and waste-characterization scheme for offshore oil- and gas-
producing facilities. This study will identify waste-minimization
techniques and evaluate unit processes, including human-
engineering aspects, that should be practiced or avoided to reduce
the variability of the final waste to be treated. A field verification
study will be conducted onboard platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Although devoted principally to deep-ocean operations, much of
the technology developed by the U.S. Navy is also applicable td the
development of OCS oil and gas and to associated construction and

19

maintenance of sea-floor instrumentation and equipment. Hand-
books, available to industry through the Defense Documentation
Center, treat subjects such as electric cable technology for deep
ocean application, rotary shaft-seal selection for pressure-
equalized, deep ocean equipment, fluids and lubricants for deep
ocean applications, and underwater imaging system design. Direct
consultation with Navy engineers by industry is encouraged, and
Navy test facilities and ranges are being made available to public
groups on reimbursable, not-to-interfere terms. Industry also makes
extensive use of diving technology developed largely under Navy
sponsorship.

Offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production
have resulted in constantly increasing vessel traffic and other forms
of transportation to service offshore operations and to move the
product to shore. Pressures have been particularly intense in the
shipping lanes and ports of the Gulf coast, but have also risen
elsewhere. They will increase markedly with the opening of the
trans-Alaska Pipeline and with the anticipated discovery and
development of oil fields in the frontier areas of the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts. The growing congestion of workboats, barges,
floating platforms, and coastal tankers has added significantly to the
hazard of accidents, thereby constituting one of the greatest
potential offshore causes of oil spills and other pollution.

All plans submitted to USGS that involve the placement of
structures, drilling from floating platforms, or laying of pipelines in
navigable waters require review and the issuance of permits by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) to assure that they do not result
in obstructions to navigation. The USCG, in turn, has responsibility
for insuring that the structures are properly marked. Through a
cooperative agreement, USGS teams inspect the navigation marking
equipment, as well as equipment prescribed by the USCG pertaining
to safety of life and property on the platforms and included in
operating regulations and orders.

The Houston Ship Channel, which serves as one of the main routes
to the offshore oil fields of the gulf and to the East coast oil terminals
is the site of the USCG's newest vessel traffic system. Commissioned
on February 4, 1975, it incorporates a reporting system for vessel
movement throughout the channel, from its entrance at Galveston to
the Houston turning basin; a communications network; and a low-
light-level closed-circuit television at a vessel traffic center in
Houston. An automated vessel movement reporting system is
scheduled to become operational in late 1976, and high-resolution
radar surveillance of the lower Galveston Bay, Bolivar Roads, and
the Galveston Bay entrance area will begin by early 1977.
Comparable traffic systems that have been installed or that are

20

planned for other ports include accommodation for the movement of
vessels serving offshore oil activities.

USCG responsibilities also include surveillance for oil spills and
other oil discharges onto waters of the OCS. During flights to and
from platforms, USGS inspection teams maintain surveillance to
identify spills and other signs of pollution. This surveillance
supplements USCG flights and serves to provide an interim
response and control mechanism. All incidents are reported to
appropriate USCG headquarters and, if traced to vessels, are
referred to the nearest USCG station. The USCG responds to all
reports of major incidents.

NASA's Wallops Flight Center has demonstrated the feasibility of
using an aircraft-mounted laser system for detecting oil slicks at any
hour of the day or night. The laser beam's impinging on a slick
produces a florescence, which is then recorded aboard the aircraft
and analyzed to determine the type of oil involved. The technique
remains in the testing stage, and its sensitivity for distinguishing
between natural and man-produced slicks has not yet been
demonstrated.

In support of the National Contingency Plan for pollution
incidents, the USCG operates the National Response Center and
Strike Force with the following specific spill response functions:

(1) Provide communications support

(2) Provide advice and assistance for oil and hazardous substance
removal

(3) Provide expertise in ship salvage, diving, and removal
techniques and methodology.

These functions are described in the Federal Ocean Program Report
of 1974. During 1974 the Strike Force gained wide recognition for its
participation in the response to several notable incidents involving
ship collisions and groundings:

(1) A 330,000-gallon spill in February 1974 resulting from a
collision of two vessels at a refinery at Paulsboro, N.|. Eight
members of the Atlantic Strike Team were on the scene for 17 days
providing expertise in removal techniques and methodology.

(2) The holing of the USNS Towle by a small iceberg off Hamilton
Inlet with the loss of fuel oil. A seven-man strike team departed
Elizabeth City for Goose Bay, Labrador, with 24,000 pounds of
equipment including air-deliverable antipollution transfer systems
(ADAPTS), diving gear, and underwater cutting and welding
equipment. The strike teamdivers plugged the holes, pumped out the
floodwater, and installed a patch over the damaged area, after which
the Towle steamed into Goose Bay without incident.

21

(3) The grounding of the Librian tanker Aeolus in Ambrose
Channel, N. Y., in August 1974. Strike team assistance was requested
at midnight on August 24. Seven team members with their
equipment departed Elizabeth City, N.C., 3 hours later. Before noon,
the men and their equipment were on board the grounded vessel.
Transfer of the tanker's cargo to tank barges commenced 4 hours
later, and pumping continued for almost 48 hours. At the conclusion
of the ADAPTS pumping operation, 71,600 barrels of cargo had been
transferred with none spilled.

Recognition of USCG cleanup capability was reflected in requests
from foreign governments. The USCG aided in handling massive
spills during September 1974 caused by the August 1974 grounding
of the supertanker, MetuJa, in the Straits of Magellan and the
January 1975 grounding of the Showa Maru in the Singapore Straits.

The USCG National Response Center and the USGS Accident
Alert System are interconnected. In the areas of offshore oil
development, however, industry maintains capable response and
prevention forces; spill incidents have generally been small to
negligible; and as a result the USCG National Strike Force has not
yet been called on for participation in cleanup operations.

The Maritime Administration (MARAD) of the Department of
Commerce conducts numerous operational and design studies to
increase the safety of oil transport by tankers and reduce oil
discharges from ships, port installations, and offshore platforms.
Current efforts include contract support for the development of an
efficient and compact oil/water separator that will limit discharges
to acceptable national and international levels; completion of design
studies for an oil/water seaparator test facility at Galveston, Tex.;
and the acquisition of greater testing capability for the evaluation of
oil-in-water monitors.

In anticipation of possible future oil production from beneath the
Arctic Ocean, MARAD has undertaken studies of economic and
technical constraints on the development of submarine tankers,
nuclear-powered Arctic ships, and Arctic crude-oil carriers. A
general evaluation of economic and operational factors associated
with a technically feasible commercial Arctic submarine for oil
transport was completed in 1974, and efforts are now being devoted
to investigation of oil-water miscibility to determine the effect on
design of ballast water systems for the underseas craft. Studies of
surface Arctic shipping are closely coordinated with and comple-
ment a program for the extension of the Great Lakes ore-carrier
season. A market analysis of needs for the water transport of drilling
supplies and oil products, completed by the Arctic Institute in 1973,
forms the basis for a current evaluation of proposed Arctic surface

22

tankers as a supplement to pipeline operations. MARAD plans to
initiate hull design studies for crude oil carriers in cooperation with
industry, because proven designs for Arctic operations do not exist
at present. The movement of pack ice, including that in the shear
zone described in the chapter on geology and geophysics, will be an
important factor in these studies.

General research studies of the dispersal and effects of oil spills
that apply to ship and tanker traffic as well as to the environmental
baseline and assessment studies supported by BLM are being
conducted by NOAA's NMFS as they relate to commercial fisheries
and by DOI's FWS as they relate to protection of coastal wildlife
habitats. Complementary studies, largely by universities, are
supported through NSF, NOAA's Sea Grant Program, and DOI's
Office of Water Research and Technology.

NMFS research focuses on the potential effects of oil discharges on
the commercial fisheries of Prince William Sound, Alaska, and on
salmon of the Gulf of Alaska and west coast. The Prince William
Sound research conducted at the Auke Bay Laboratory has two
emphases: general studies of existing oceanographic conditions for
use in evaluating future effects of Alaska Pipeline Terminal
operations on the Sound and bioassay (physiological effects]
studies, primarily of crude oil on organisms of the area. In the latter,
Prudhoe Bay crude oil has been tested for toxicity, particularily to
crustaceans such as the Tanner crab. Results demonstrate reactions
at relatively low concentrations, as, for example, autotomy (loss of
legs], and molt retardation after 48 hours' exposure to modest levels
of oil contamination. Kachemak Bay crude oil is being used in similar
studies initiated during 1975.

In a salmon study, conducted by the NMFS Seattle Laboratory, oil-
related research showed that juvenile salmon exposed to both
aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons were able to purge themselves
of much of the accumulated hydrocarbons when transferred to clean
water. By the use of spin-labeling techniques to study mechanisms of
oil-contaminant activity at cellular and subcellular levels, hydrocar-
bons were found to penetrate cellular membranes leading to
narcoses with high dosages.

FWS research focuses on aquatic birds, which are particularly
vulnerable to adverse effects from oil spills, and on threatened and
endangered species. Birds are among the predators that are attracted
to the enriched biologic habitats that form beneath the offshore
drilling and production platforms. In cooperation with FWS and a
number of conservation groups, industry has established high
priority on waterfowl protection and maintains bird rescue
capabilities in the event of local accidents.

FWS has expanded efforts to determine the effects of oil spills on

23

coastal ecosystems, partly in support of environmental assessments
of the leasing system, but also as they relate to shipping accidents
and to discharges from adjacent land areas. DOI's Office of Water
Research and Technology supports research by academic in-
stitutions on the spreading of oil slicks.

The potential impacts of OCS oil and gas development on land use,
public services, and other activities within the coastal zone are
receiving increasing attention, especially in areas adjacent to the oil
and gas exploration frontier along the northeast and central Atlantic
coast, where demands on the use of the shoreline are already intense.
As pressure on the use of the coastal zone continues to grow, the
need for contingency planning at Federal, State, and local levels
increases. To aid in the planning effort. Congress passed a number of
amendments to the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972,
administered by NOAA's Office of Coastal Zone Management
(OCZM), and granted additional funding for priority support of
planning programs in States that are most likely to be affected by
new or expanded offshore petroleum activity. In addition to
planning grants to the States, OCZM, with the cooperation of other
Federal agencies, such as DOI's Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, is
sponsoring regional conferences to discuss subjects of mutual
concern to the Federal Government and the States.

To aid in planning and managing onshore-offshore activities,
USGS and NOAA have produced cooperatively the Experimental
1:250, 000-Scale Topographic-Bathymetric Map, a map of a portion
of the North Carolina coast. This prototype, which is actually two
maps in one, incorporates into one format and one edition the data
previously shown separately on the USGS topographic map and the
NOAA bathymetric map of the area. Map-use comments,
suggestions, and acceptance of the experimental sheet, issued in
early 1975, are being solicited prior to implementing a program to
produce such sheets.

Deepwater Ports

On January 4, the President signed the Deepwater Port Act of 1974
into law. In anticipation of the legislation, the USCG established a
Deepwater Ports Project Staff in early July 1974. The initial
activities of this staff have focused on preparing environmental
impact assessments for deepwater port proposals and on drafting
regulations that aim at reducing the probability of mishap. The
regulations include specifying maximum safe vessel draft for each
port, limiting entry to vessels that comply with manning and
readiness requirements, embarking port representatives prior to
entry, requiring intervals between vessels, and establishing weather
minimums and cutoff conditions for vessel traffic.

24

As do other offshore oil and gas activities, the Deepwater Ports
Program involves many aspects of the Federal Ocean Program and
includes the cooperation and coordination of a number of con-
tributing agencies. A balance of economic and environmental
considerations is particularly important in site selection: the
proximity of onland processing facilities and markets, as well as
shoreline receiving stations, is as important as optimum water
depths, bottom stability, and weather conditions. During the early
1970's, the Council on Environmental Quality, COE, MARAD, the
USCG, and others undertook a variety of studies designed to
evaluate various alternatives to select potential sites for ports of
various designs, and to analyze the effects of heavy vessel traffic.
The results of these studies provide a broad base for current
planning and for the preparation of environmental assessments
under the direction of the USCG.

The first of the planned deepwater ports will be "singlepoint
moorings", to which oil will be transferred through hoses from very
large crude-oil carriers (VLCC's] to the mooring and then pumped
through pipelines to shore. The greatest single potential source of oil
spillage in these operations is associated with connecting and
disconnecting the hoses to the tankers. MARAD is undertaking a
number of studies to improve handling of the hoses and to eliminate
associated spillage. The studies include the development of precise
and realistic techniques for calculating VLCC motions and for
moving hawser loads relative to sea-bottompositions and in various
wind, wave, and current conditions; assessment of methods for
attenuating waves in the vicinity of the ports; improvement of hoses
and connections; and the development of advanced types of service
craft to assist the VLCC's in picking up and handling mooring lines
and hoses.

The licensing procedures, environmental assessment and protec-
tion, and navigation safety measures being developed by the USCG
for deepwater ports include numerous contributions from DOC,
DOI, Department of Defense [DOD), and other agencies. For
example, assessments of fair-market rental values are made by DOI;
NOAA, FWS, and USGS participate in the preparation and review of
environmental-impact statements to assure adequate consideration
of weather, oceanographic, and geological conditions and of
fisheries, wildlife, and mineral resources; construction permits are
issued by COE. EPA pollution standards and the provisions of the
National Contigency Plan, developed jointly by EPA, the USCG and
the Office of Pipeline Safety, apply to deepwater ports as well as to
other offshore operations.

With support from the Council on Environmental Quality and
NOAA's Office of Sea Grant, The Center for Wetland Resources of

25

Louisiana State University (LSU), is providing assistance to that
State in its deepwater-port planning efforts. Initiated in 1972, at the
request of the State Planning Office, the LSU deepwater port studies
have evolved into a broad multidisciplinary effort devoted to the
legal, economic, and environmental aspects of deepwater-port
development. Working closely with Government agencies and
private industry, the center recently completed a comprehensive
report that provides detailed recommendations for the formulation
of an environmental protection plan by the Louisiana Deep Draft
Harbor and Terminal Authority. An environmental assessment
undertaken by the center provided important baseline data for an
environmental-impact statement prepared by private industry in
conjunction with a construction permit application to the Deep Draft
Harbor and Terminal Authority.

Offshore Powerplants

Increasing needs for electrical power in coastal areas, land-use
competition, local environmental effects, and the great capacity of
the oceans to absorb heat and other wastes provides incentives for
offshore siting of electricity-generating powerplants, in particular,
nuclear power stations. Siting of nuclear power reactors on floating
barges within a few miles of shore is a viable concept for maximizing
dispersal of the waste products and achieving the greatest economic
benefits from offshore electrical generation. If nuclear plants are
sited short distances from shore, however, the coastal zone would be
vulnerable to any accidents that might occur, and as a result
widespread public concern has arisen concerning the safety of
proposed offshore stations. The research program of the Atomic
Energy Commission (AEC) in 1974 audits successor ERD A in 1975 is
dedicated to assuring that such undertakings are safe and that the
surrounding complex, dynamic, and yet fragile environment is
protected and preserved.

At the request of AEC, the Council on Environmental Quality
undertook a comprehensive environmental assessment of offshore
nuclear powerplant sitings. The assessment, receiving significant
contributions from most of the agencies participating in the Federal
Ocean Program, as well as from public and other outside interests,
has helped to define many specific aspects of local environments that
require continuing study. The fate of waste discharges, including
heat, from existing power generating stations on land is particularly
pertinent to offshore siting and is included among the aspects
requiring further investigation.

ERDA's marine research program focuses on developing detailed
baseline environmental information through studies performed in

26

ERDA National Laboratories and through contract support of work
by others. Solutions to pollutant transfer problems within the
coastal zone are sought through a multidisciplinary approach in
which specific energy-related pollutants are traced from source,
through transport, to uptake. The findings of this work are used in
the development of broad ecological models. Priority is being given
to establishing environmental norms of sea states, currents, biology,
and existing water chemistry — all essential to developing pollution
control and powerplant siting regulations applicable in specific
offshore areas.

Examples of marine baseline studies being conducted and
supported by ERDA National Laboratories include

(1) Argonne National Laboratory— dispersion and biologic effects
of thermal plumes from power reactors

(2) Brookhaven National Laboratory — transport and dispersion of
pollutants along the coastal boundary layer, and nutrient regenera-
tion and its impact on productivity in waters of the northeast
continental shelf

(3) Lawrence Livermore Laboratory — uptake, retention, and
effects of trace elements and radionuclides in coastal marine
organisms

(4) Pacific Northwest Laboratory— effects of powerplant effluent
on coastal ecosystems, and source term characterization for all
energy operations

(5) Savannah River Laboratory— dispersion of radionuclides and
other pollutants across the southeastern continental shelf

ERDA currently plans intensification of its biogeochemical
studies and broadening of their geographic scope. The program
contributes to nuclear reactor safety programs for offshore floating
powerplants and to the environmental review responsibilities of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Much of the detailed
information being acquired also has general application to other
offshore energy-related environmental studies.

Most proposed sites for offshore nuclear powerplants lie within
territorial waters under the jurisdiction of State regulatory agencies.
State planning for leasing offshore sites and the administration of
powerplant operations are among the purposes of grants to the
States administered by NOAA's OCZM. To aid in this planning,
NOAA's Office of Sea Grant is supporting studies of powerplant
siting and related research. For example, in a continuing mul-
tidisciplinary study conducted by the State University of New York
with Sea Grant support, university teams are evaluating many
aspects of the siting problem, including potential economic and
environmental impacts of the offshore powerplants, the effec-

27

tiveness of existing legislation and regulatory agencies, the
characteristics and possible uses for heated effluents, and the use of
buffer zones and transmission corridors for recreational purposes.
The findings of the study are being used extensively by the State's
regulatory agencies, local government, private industry, and public
interest groups. In another example, the University of Wisconsin,
with added financial support from Wisconsin's electric power
industry and the State's Department of Natural Resources, has
undertaken a research and monitoring program on the discharge of
heated water from electric powerplants to Lake Michigan. Com-
bining the resources of industry, the regulatory agencies, a research
organization, and with the cooperation and support of others, the
scientists participating in the project have developed and applied
air-borne radiometers and scanners to record and study the
dimensions, directions of flow, and temperatures of the heated water
discharges.

Alternate Energy Sources

The energy potential of oceanic waves, currents, salinity
gradients, and thermal structure has been known and discussed for
many years. The technical feasibility of converting this energy to
electricity has been demonstrated for each of these four sources, and
limited success has been achieved in generating power for local
consumption at a few places where tidal ranges are high and produce
sufficiently strong cyclic currents. Of the four, however, the energy
available from the oceanic thermal structure apparently far exceeds
that from other sources and holds considerable promise of providing
power for generating electricity at a moderate capital cost.

Ocean thermal energy is a renewable form of solar energy,
resulting from the absorption and storage of heat from the sun in
surface waters. The conversion of thermal to electric energy can be
accomplished in a number of ways. The preferred conversion method
today is one that would use the warm oceanic surface waters to
vaporize a turbine-driving fluid and cold subsurface water pumped
from greater depths to condense the fluid. (See figure 2.) Associated
with such a system are the additional options of producing protein,
plant life, minerals, and fresh water. Although no technological
breakthroughs or fuel costs are involved, the techniques and costs
for the fabrication, installation, operation, maintenance, and energy
transport require careful consideration to assure the technical and
economic viability of the systems to produce significant quantities
of electric power.

In its program of Research Applied to National Needs (RANN),
NSF initiated support of studies on Ocean Thermal Energy

28

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29

Conversion during 1972. ERDA now provides the principal support
of these studies. The objectives of the studies are

(1) To establish design and evaluation criteria for viable
components and subsystems

(2) To examine the technical and competitive feasibility of various
ocean thermal concepts

(3) To investigate possible legal and environmental barriers to
technology implementation and the means for resolving and
ameliorating such problems

(4) To explore energy conversion, storage, and delivery systems
for exploitation of the derived energy

(5) To study potential byproducts of large floating ocean thermal
pow^erplants, fresh water, and chemical fuels

Current studies being conducted at several universities and private
companies range from the development of materials and designs for
more efficient heat exchangers to the construction and testing of an
operating model of an ocean solar powerplant. Most studies are still
in the early stages, but they have already resulted in a fluted tube
technique to enhance heat transfer and reduce costs, and in the
completion of a systems configuration that could be located off the
Florida coast and provide electric power to Miami. Preliminary
results also suggest that the offshore plants might reasonably
produce intermediate chemical products, such as hydrogen,
methanol, or ammonia, which in turn could be delivered to land-
based plants for use in generating electricity or for other purposes.

30

Chapter III

MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS

The last decade has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of
the physics of the earth's crust and mantle. Geophysicists now
believe that most of the crust of the earth consists of a limited
number of large plates and numerous small plates. These plates
move apart from ocean ridges, where new material wells up from the
mantle, and come together along certain continental margins and
island arcs. In these areas one plate may be forced under the other
and assimilated back into the mantle. Research into these processes
can give new insights into the history of the earth and the movement
of continents. It can also provide us with information needed for
current practical use.

Plate-tectonic processes involve earthquakes, geothermal activi-
ty, and the deposition of certain minerals. The study of plate
tectonics is, therefore, of increasing importance. The findings of
these geophysical studies will add to the fundamental understan-
ding that is needed to reduce earthquake damage, to tap geothermal
energy sources, and to locate and develop nonliving resources of the
oceans as those of land areas become inadequate.

Much of this research is conducted at plate margins, where
tectonic processes can most readily be observed. However, studies of
the sediments on the continental shelves and ocean bottoms are
equally important for finding petroleum and deposits of sand,
gravel, and other mineral resources. The mechanical and other
physical properties of the shallow sediments must be known for the
design and construction of structures resting on the sea floor. In
some localities the layering found in undisturbed sediments can
provide clues to the history of the earth's climate and aid in research
on the possibility of predicting future climate variations.

A new emphasis is now being given to investigations of
sedimentary dynamics the patterns (rates and directions) of erosion,
transport, and deposition. The change reflects an increasing concern

31

for efficient management of the marine environment and its
resources, and, in particular, for management of the heavily used
sector of the sea floor on the continental shelf. Here use of the sea
floor for food resources (finfish and shellfish) and for recreational
purposes (bathing, boating, and sports fishing) conflicts with all
other uses (dumping of sewage sludge, dredge spoil, industrial
wastes; dredging of channels and for aggregate; and the construction
of deepwater terminals, oil rigs, and offshore powerplants).
Environmental engineers and decisionmakers must have quan-
titative information on the pattern of sediment transport on the
continental margin if they are going to optimize these conflicting
uses. They must know whether the surfaces on which they are
dumping and building are eroding or aggrading; and they must trace
the natural sediment pathways that pollutants follow.

This chapter will describe seven major categories of federally
supported programs in marine geology and geophysics. The first
three sections are those that examine the properties, structure, and
history of the oceanic crust and upper mantle from its generation at
sea-floor spreading centers to its ultimate destruction in ocean
trenches. The fourth section describes programs examining the
relatively passive continental margins such as those that surround
the Atlantic Ocean. Studies of the sediment record of paleo-
oceanography and paleoclimatology are discussed in the fifth. The
sixth section reviews federally supported research on mineral
resources of which manganese nodules on the deep-sea floor are
perhaps the most potentially important. The last section discusses
the sediments themselves, including sedimentation processes and
properties.

The Generation of the Sea Floor and Processes Operating at Ridge
Crests

Midocean ridges are the most extensive morphologic features on
the earth's surface, and within the framework of plate tectonics, they
represent the divergent or accreting margins of the plates. Studies of
the worldwide distribution of earthquakes, presently being con-
ducted by the USGS, and of the distribution of magnetic anomalies
in the ocean basins, have allowed an accurate mapping of these
accretion zones and, to a first approximation, an analysis of the rate
of sea-floor generation along most of the ridge systems. Current
studies seek to understand the tectonics, petrology, and
geochemistry of the accretion processes occurring along these
ridges.

The most intensive examination of a ridge crust ever undertaken is
project FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study).

32

The Office of Naval Research (ONR], NOAA, and NSF, with the
cooperation of other agencies, provide U.S. support for FAMOUS.
The project, designed to examine the geological and geophysical
processes along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the vicinity of the Azores,
began in 1971 with a broad regional survey, followed by more
intense, localized studies of the valley along the crust of the ridge.
This preliminary work provided the basis for an intensive
submersible diving program on the ridge during 1974. One U.S. and
two French submersibles made 44 dives to the floor of the rift valley
and recovered over 1,000 kilograms of rock samples.

The floor of the rift valley has proved to be much more complex
than data collected from the sea surface indicated. The central part of
the valley floor has a series of topographic ridges and depressions
running along the axis where new sea floor is being created. To either
side of this central axial zone, the rift valley has marginal
depressions formed by normal faulting along tensional fractures.
The faults and fissures show horizontal separations ranging from a
few centimeters to over 8 meters. The walls of the rift valley are
normal faults along which portions of the old valley floor have been
uplifted to form the present crestal ridges. Measured vertical
displacements on the faults ranged from less than 1 meter to over 100
meters. Although volcanism appeared to be episodic and restricted
to the narrow central zone, evidence for continuing tectonic activity
was found throughout the dive area. Petrologic and chemical
analyses of the recovered basalt show a range of composition similar
to that which has been shown for basalts of the Atlantic Ocean as a
whole. The most significant variations are in the content of titanium,
silica, iron, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Amounts of some of
these elements tend to be low in basalt from the young axial volcanic
highs and comparatively high in samples from the rift valley walls.

Continued analyses of the samples, photographs, and other data
from project FAMOUS should significantly improve our understan-
ding of the sea-floor accretion process. Future, less elaborate
programs using submersibles are now being planned for the
Caribbean and eastern equatorial Pacific. These programs will
examine the sea-floor spreading process along ridges that differ
morphologically and structurally from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Leg 37 of the Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP), supported by
NSF, added significant data on the structure and petrology of the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Although not part of FAMOUS, site 332 was
located 25 kilometers west of the FAMOUS dive area and penetrated
582 meters into basaltic basement. Preliminary results indicated
that the entire section formed within a median valley of Mid-to-Late
Pliocene age over a period of 100,000 to 200,000 years. The cored
basalt is largely an extrusive sequence of massive to pillowed basalt

33

units with interlayered fossil oozes. Magnetic properties of the
volcanic sequence are complex. The linear sea-floor spreading
anomalies observed over site 332 are not caused by a simple
sequence of uniformly magnetized lavas, but rather by the sum effect
of numerous lavas whose magnetic intensity and polarity vary
widely. This result, as well as the weak magnetization of the top few
hundred meters of basalt, strongly conflicts with standard inter-
pretations of marine magnetic-anomaly sources, which assume a
uniform magnetization strongest in the upper few hundred meters.
As the DSDP enters its International Phase of Ocean Drilling
(IPOD), significant effort will be placed on drilling deep holes into
the oceanic crust to clarify and expand knowledge gained at site 332.

Other studies supported by NSF and ONR are examining the
history of particular ridge systems. Studies of the East Pacific Rise
have revealed a complicated spreading history during the last 25
million years, with large lateral shifts, or "jumps", in the location of
sea-floor genesis. These "jumps" have produced complicated
magnetic and bathymetric patterns in the eastern Pacific.

The actual topography of ridge crests and its relation to the
spreading process have been under careful examination. Whereas
the slowly spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge has a large central rift
valley with steep walls, the rapidly spreading East Pacific rise is
characterized by a central axial peak. Several theories have
attempted to account for these characteristics in terms of the width
of the accretion zone, the rate of basalt intrusion, the rate of
separation of the lithospheric plates, or the rate at which heat is
transferred away from the intrusion zone. Continuing research in
this area should provide valuable information on the tectonic
processes that accompany the creation of new sea floor.

In addition to the USGS program of monitoring large earthquakes
from spreading centers, ocean bottom seismometers are now being
deployed to examine the fine-scale distribution of microearthquake
activity. Such studies will be important in determining the
distribution and extent of magma chambers beneath ridge crests.

The axis of the oceanic ridge system is offset at many places,
departs from its characteristic midocean position in the eastern
Pacific, and intersects the continental margin at a few locations.
Many scientists now agree that the San Andreas Fault System of
Southern California represents a zone of offset that connects the
ridge axis between its intersection with land at the head of the Gulf
of California and the southern terminus of its northward continua-
tion to the west of northern California. Because it is the source of
frequent damaging earthquakes, the fault system, which lies both
onland and offshore, has been the object of intense investigation for

34

many years. During 1974, USGS issued a series of maps that
summarize present knowledge for the offshore portions. The maps
provide a picture of much greater geologic complexity for the region
than previously suspected, and help to demonstrate the wide
distribution of hazards about which detailed information is required
for planning offshore operations, such as siting of power plants, oil
platforms, and pipelines.

Information on the hydrothermal circulation of seawater is being
provided by a number of programs, including DSDP. For example,
the basalt throughout the section of DSDP site 332, on the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge, shows evidence of alteration, possibly by hydrother-
mal circulation in the upper portion of the crust. This has been
postulated to explain large variations in measured heat flow near
spreading centers and measured heat-flow values significantly less
than those predicted by sea-floor spreading theories. Cold seawater
apparently flows down into the crust, is heated, and rises to the sea
floor where it discharges into the overlying bottom water, resulting
in a high percentage of heat transfer by convection that is not
recorded by normal heat-flow measurements. In programs spon-
sored by NSF on the Galapagos Rift Zone, and NOAA on the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge, temperature anomalies in seawater near the ocean
floor have been interpreted to be the result of sea-floor discharge of
hydrothermal waters.

Mineral enriched sea-floor sediments may be products of
hydrothermal circulation. These metalliferous sediments were
initially found close to sea-floor spreading centers in all oceans. In
the DSDP they were discovered to be ubiquitous throughout the
ocean, lying just above basalt at the base of the sedimentary section.
As seawater circulates through the crust, it apparently leaches these
metals from the basalt. Upon discharge into the cold bottom waters,
these metals precipitate and settle to the sea floor.

NSF currently sponsors a program to study extensive deposits of
these sediments on the Nazca Plate. The findings of this program
indicate that the formation of metalliferous sediments may be more
complicated than originally suggested. Apparently the mineralogy
and chemistry of these deposits is produced by a combination of
factors: hydrothermally produced elements transported from the
East Pacific Rise, the authigenic addition of elements from sea water,
and diagenetic remobilization of elements at the sediment/water
interface or within the sediment section.

In addition to adding elements to sea water, hydrothermal
circulation may be responsible for removing certain elements;
laboratory studies have shown that significant amounts of Mg and
So" are removed from sea water in contact with basalt. Thus,
hydrothermal circulation through the 2 square kilometers of new sea

35

floor created each year may play a significant role in the chemical
composition of sea water.

Structure and Age of the Ocean Lithosphere

As the oceanic lithosphere moves down the flank of a midocean
ridge, it evolves both petrologically and structurally. The first
suggestion of this evolution came from studies of the relationship
between sea-floor depth and age, which were sponsored by NSF and
ONR. The sea-floor depth showed a logarithmic increase in going
from the youngest crust at ridge crests to the oldest crust. This
increase of depth with age is apparently related to thermal
contraction of the lithosphere as it cools while moving away from a
spreading center. Because the logarithmic profile is independent of
the spreading rate, it provides another tool for determining sea-floor
age.

The age-versus-depth relationship is only one clue to the puzzle of
how the lithosphere evolves. First-order models of heat flow and
gravity across a midocean ridge have been devised. Regional
anomaly maps show the departures of observed data from the
models. Analysis and interpretation of such maps, coupled with
additional field observations and geodynamic modeling, will
ultimately shed a great deal of light on the dynamics and properties
of the oceanic lithosphere and underlying asthenosphere.

A clearer understanding of the detailed structure and petrology of
the lithosphere is one of the primary objectives of the crustal drilling
portions of the IPOD program. Detailed and well-controlled seismic
refraction data obtained by ocean-bottom seismometers will be
integrated with information from rock cores to be obtained during
the drilling program. Initial results from the ocean-bottom
seismometer refraction program suggest a complex velocity struc-
ture in the upper lithosphere.

Near the crest of the East Pacific Ridge, a recent study has shown a
low-velocity zone, which may be evidence of the magma chamber
below the zone of accretion. Out to 150 kilometers (3 million years),
very little is seen in the way of discrete crustal layering. At about 250
kilometers (5 million years), however, numerous identifiable layers
are present in the refraction results. In the future it may prove
possible to trace these distinct velocity layers using multichannel
seismic reflection techniques. The USGS and NSF have recently
acquired a multichannel profile from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to the
U.S. east coast. Analysis of data from this profile will attempt to
define and map crustal layering and will be used to determine the
locations of future IPOD drill holes.

Although most of the oceanic lithosphere is produced by sea-floor
spreading at midocean ridges, significant volumes of material are

36

produced as the result of intraplate magma sources. Long, linear
volcanic ridges in the Pacific Ocean are apparently produced as the
ocean plate drifts over one of these magma sources, or "hot spots."
The submarine ridge of which the Hawaiian Islands are the exposed
peaks is probably the best studied of these features. Under programs
sponsored in part by the USGS, scientists have defined an apparent
northwest-to-southeast decrease in the geologic age of volcanism.
Today the most active volcanoes of the Hawaiian Ridge are at the
southeast end on the Island of Hawaii.

Initial hypotheses have attempted to explain the origin of these
"hot spots" as the result of either a rising plume of material from the
deep mantle or sinking and melting of portions of the shallow mantle.
If either of these explanations is correct, the "hot spots" may
represent fixed points within the Earth, over which the plates have
drifted for at least 100 million years. Thus, by analysis of the age and
orientation of volcanic ridges left on the plates by the "hot spots," it
may be possible to determine the "absolute" direction and rate of
plate movements.

The "hot spots" hypothesis, however, has been called into serious
question as a result of drilling activities along the Line Islands, a
submarine ridge and island chain similar to Hawaii. On DSDP leg 33,
scientists found that volcanism apparently occurred simultaneously
along the 1,200 kilometers length of this ridge. A counter theory has
been proposed that suggests that at least some linear submarine
ridges are produced by fracturing of the lithosphere as it drifts over
the nonspherical Earth. Continuing research is attempting to
improve our understanding of these linear volcanic features in terms
of plate tectonics.

Analyses of magnetic anomalies in oceanic areas near "hot spots"
reveal extensive regions of high amplitude. These are known to occur
southeast of Australia, around the Galapagos Islands, and on the
Juan de Fuca Ridge west of North America. Correlation with
chemical and magnetic analyses of dredged basalts shows that the
high amplitudes reflect iron and titanium, hence titanomagnetic
enrichment, which gives the crustal layer greater magnetization
intensity. Thus, "magnetic telechemistry" may be a viable tool in
assaying the bulk chemistry of the oceanic crust by the use of
magnetic-anomaly amplitudes.

Other studies of "hot spots" showed that (1) volcano or major
seamount spacing is of the order of 70 kilometers and reflects
fracture spacing controlled by and roughly equal to the thickness of
the lithosphere; (2) volcano height is also controlled by the thickness
of the lithosphere; and (3) major "hot spots" on the Mid-Oceanic
Ridge — such as Iceland or the Azores — cause regional uplifts in the
spreading axis and associated regional gravity highs. As the plate

37

ages and thickens, magma can rise to greater heights in volcanic
conduits; for example, Azores volcanoes are not nearly as high as
Hawaiian ones. The greater the highes, the slower the spreading rate;
this explains the increase in the width of the pinelike region of
partial melting below the ridge. At high spreading rates, the wide
pipe can easily discharge the "hot spots" mass excess without
accumulation of a large mantle "mountain" such as that under
Iceland and the Azores.

Plume-derived volcanic material may also be important in
producing certain geochemical anomalies found in sea-floor basalt.
Chlorine content, and strontium 87/86 ratios and
lanthanum/samarium ratios show unique distributions in the north
Atlantic that are difficult to reconcile with the single source of basalt
that is implied by the sea-floor spreading model. Work supported by
ONR and NSF has suggested that two sources may be supplying
volcanic material to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The first source is the
low-velocity zone of the upper mantle, which is depleted in chlorine
and large-ion rare earths, such as lanthanum, and has low strontium
isotopic ratios. The second source is a rising plume, which
transports material upward from the deep mantle. Iceland was
formed where this plume supplies material at a rate exceeding that
required to fill the gap left by the spreading plates.

Continued refinement of the geomagnetic time scale is taking place
under NSF, ONR, and USGS support. Most notable ac-
complishments in this area are the clarification of the magnetic pole
reversal chronology between 10 and 25 million years ago and the
establishment of ages for the reversal sequence between 110 and 135
million years ago. Significant research is presently underway in an
attempt not only to continue refining the time scale but also to
understand the processes by which reversals of the magnetic field
are recorded by the ocean crust.

A histogram of the number of polarity intervals during the last 45
million years, plotted against the length of the intervals, shows an
exponential decline in the number of intervals as their length
increases. This was suggested as evidence that reversals are
independent of each other. More complete statistical arguments have
recently suggested, however, that the reversal pattern may be
systematic. Research is attempting to resolve this conflict because
the reversal mechanism is a key to understanding the forces in the
earth's core that produce the geomagnetic field.

Critical to understanding the statistics of the reversal sequence is
an evaluation of reversals lasting only a few thousand years.
Analysis of reversals during the last 5 million years indicated
numerous short polarity intervals. These short intervals, however,
have been much harder to find in older crust. Although this may

38

represent a change in the mechanism that generates the field, it most
likely represents a deterioration of the record of polarity changes as
the crust ages. Recent investigations suggest that two crustal layers
may be contributing to the production of anomalies. The upper layer
corresponds to extruded pillow basalt with a high initial magnetiza-
tion and a narrow transition width between normal- and reversed-
polarity rocks. The lower layer corresponds to intruded basalt with
lower magnetization and a wider transition zone. As the crust ages,
the upper layer loses its high magnetization because of alteration of
the basalt, possibly by hydrothermal circulation. Over old crust,
then, the surface anomalies are more representative of deeper
magnetic sources. Such a model would explain a general lack of short
polarity intervals in older cust.

Destruction of Ocean Crust

The theory of plate tectonics assumes the destruction of oceanic
lithsphere in deep trenches bordering continents and island arcs. In
these areas the oceanic lithosphere is thrust beneath the overriding
continent or arc along a steeply dipping zone, which is highlighted by
intense earthquake activity. Melting of rock along this zone and the
subsequent rise of magma produces the chains of volcanoes that are
commonly adjacent to trench regions. Seismology studies and
analyses of the erupted volcanic material above the earthquake zone
give the best picture of the ultimate destruction of oceanic
lithosphere, though these studies are not the domain of the marine
geologist or geophysicist. Marine studies generally concentrate on
the shallower aspects of the process that are observable with
conventional geological and geophysical techniques, such as
gravity, refraction, reflection, heat-flow studies, and analyses of
volcanic history recorded in marine sediments.

The great Alaska earthquake of 1964 triggered USGS efforts to
determine the effects of earthquakes on the sea floor. Since then,
continuing studies have been performed along the Aleutian trench
off the coast of Alaska to examine the total geologic framework, to
identify possible sources of future earthquakes, and to assess
potential effects of the earthquakes on the sea floor and adjacent
land areas. The USGS marine investigations, combined with
offshore studies sponsored by NSF and ONR, have provided strong
support to the concept that surface sediments on the Pacific plate are
being scraped off and accreted to the Alaskan continental margin as
the Pacific sea floor is thrust beneath Alaska.

Continuing USGS investigations of the continental margin off the
coasts of northern California, Oregon, and Washington are directed
to problems similar to those encountered along the Alaska coast. As

39

in Alaska, magnetic trends can be traced landward beneath the outer
edge of the margin, supporting postulated underthrusting of oceanic
crust beneath the continents. Deformed sedimentary layers on the
outer margin suggest that sediments from the oceanic plate are being
accreted to the northwest U.S. margin as they are in Alaska.

The accretion process, and the resulting deformation on the inner
wall and shelf along trenches, continues to be an area of active
research. Through support by NSF, scientists have been able to
examine this process along the Peru-Chile trench, using mul-
tichannel seimsic reflection techniques. Standard reflection techni-
ques seldom allowed more than a few hundred meters of seismic
penetration in the sediments along the inner wall of this trench. The
multichannel technique, with its larger sound sources and improved
signal-to-noise ratio, has allowed the oceanic lithosphere to be
traced for over 50 kilometers beneath the continental margin.
Preliminary analysis of these data shows a changing style of
deformation along the trench. Off the coast of northern Peru active
accretion of oceanic sediments is taking place, with numerous thrust
faults visable in the accreted section of sediments. Off the coast of
southern Peru, on the other hand, accretion is much less apparent,
and there is some suggestion that continental crust is perhaps being
fractured and carried down with the descending oceanic plate.

The multichannel reflection system is perhaps the single most
exciting tool for examining trenches. USGS will initiate surveys of
the Aleutian trench using deep-penetration multichannel systems to
understand the processes occurring along that trench-continental
margin. Multichannel work to provide data on deep-trench structure
along very complicated margins is being planned in an NSF-
sponsored program in Southeast Asia. Both multichannel and
seismic refraction techniques will be used to select sites along
trenches for deep drilling under the IPOD program.

Although the plate-tectonic theory deals primarily with large-
scale horizontal movements, the destruction of oceanic crust is
apparently the cause of large vertical movements in trenches.
Scientists studying the Peru-Chile trench have found uplift rates on
the order of a few tens of centimeters per year, when averaged over
the last few hundred thousand years. This uplift apparently occurs
in response to compression of the accreted sedimentary material
along the inner wall of the trench.

Closely associated with studies of trenches are those of marginal
seas that lie behind trench-island arc complexes in the western
Pacific. With NSF and ONR support, seismic refraction and
petrologic studies have shown that the crust of marginal seas is
oceanic in character. Several scientists have suggested that these
marginal seas are formed during episodes of extension behind island

40

arcs. This extensional process is apparently related to high
temperature gradients encountered in the vicinity of island arcs. Not
all marginal seas, however, may owe their origin to extensional
processes. Scientists have found magnetic lineations, apparently
generated by sea-floor spreading, which trend at high angles to
active island arcs in both the Bering Sea and Philippine Sea. This
distribution of magnetic anomalies is difficult to interpret in terms of
simple extensional models. These observations have led to the
suggestion that some marginal basins form by entrapment of oceanic
crust when an island arc-trench system develops in an oceanic plate.
The discrepant trends in the Bering Sea appear to be relatively
ancient features of a region that may best be classed as a passive
continental margin today. The change of character has resource
implications, especially with regard to petroleum occurrence. As a
result, USGS has initiated detailed studies, including plans for the
examination of deep structures using deep-penetration seismic
techniques.

Structure and History of Passive Continental Margins

Passive continental margins are formed by sea-floor spreading
when initial rifting has served to split a preexisting land mass. These
margins then drift "passively" away from the spreading center and
are typically free of major tectonic activity. Their dominant
characteristics are therefore the lack of seismic activity and a thick
cover of sediments. This thick cover of sediments significantly
impairs the examination of passive continental margins. Programs
in these areas must, therefore, use an integration of gravity,
magnetic, and seismic refraction and reflection techniques to
examine the deeply buried structures. Indeed, multichannel siemsic
reflection techniques were developed by the petroleum industry for
studies of thick sediments along passive margins.

Critical problem areas in the study of passive margins are

(1) Delineation: to what extent can this boundary actually be
delineated and by what means? How much has the boundary been
modified by postrifting processes?

(2) Subsidence: What are the rates of subsidence of the continental
edge, and how do these rates change with time? Are the rates related
primarily to thermal contraction and subsidence following the initial
rifting? Where is the hinge line seaward of which subsidence takes
place, and how does it change through time? To what extent is the
rate of subsidence affected by sediment loading?

(3) Formation: After stripping away the effects of the postrifting
geological development, what can be learned about the processes
associated with the initial rifting? Do fracture zones buried beneath

41

thick margin sediments extend into offsets of the continental edge?
Are there noncomformities in the thick margin sediments produced
by the initial period of uplift before rifting? Was this initial rifting
thermally produced or were there preexisting zones of weakness in
the ancient megacontinents that controlled the loci of separation?

Obviously, obtaining answers to these questions is time con-
suming and expensive. Answers to some will come only after
intensive studies of margins that were once joined, and these studies
must include deep drilling (planned as one phase of the IPOD
program). The need for answers to these questions, however, has
become increasingly important in a world that is rapidly depleting
its land-based energy resources. Thick sediments on the passive
margin, numerous noncomformities, and the initial heat source
produced by rifting suggest the existence of significant oil and gas
resources.

In conjunction with its offshore-energy-related activities, the
USGS has intensified studies of the geologic framework along the
Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Western and Northern Alaska
Continental Shelves. To gain information on deep structures of the
Atlantic continental margin of the United States, USGS has
acquired commercial multichannel seismic reflection profiles in this
area. The profiles show as much as 14 kilometers of continental-shelf
sediment overlying basement rocks, nearly twice the thickness
interpreted from earlier geophysical studies in this area. To get the
quickest and least expensive overview of basement structure and
relations between oceanic and continental crust, aeromagnetic
studies are being integrated with the deep-penetration reflection
data. In addition to a much thicker sedimentary section than
previously suspected, preliminary conclusions from this program
indicate an irregular faulted basement of ancient sedimentary,
metamorphic, and igneous rocks, with ridges that supported coral
reefs during early stages of shelf deposition.

Off the extensively studied Gulf coast, USGS, with the coopera-
tion of other Federal agencies, universities, and industry, is
compiling an extensive series of maps showing the broad geologic
framework of the Caribbean Sea, and in greater detail, that of the
Gulf of Mexico. Both maps will include geologic information from
adjacent land areas and will be accompanied by compilations of
existing geophysical data.

Part of the data that will be incorporated into this map are NSF-
supported multichannel reflection data from the gulf. Seismic
sections show that sedimentary sequences found by the DSDP in the
central gulf can be traced laterally throughout much of the deeper
portions of the gulf. The oldest part of the section is a Jurassic salt

42

layer, overlain by a layer of early Crustaceous pelagic sediments.
This is in turn overlain by a sequence of strong seismic reflectors
thought to be early-to-middle Tertiary turbidites. Pelagic sedimen-
tation again dominated the sedimentary sequence of the gulf in Late
Miocene and Pliocene time.

Paleoclimatology and the Paleo-Oceanographic History of the
Oceans

The sediments that accumulate slowly on the floors of the ocean
basins provide indications of both the climate and oceanographic
conditions present at the time of their deposition. Thus, analyses of
the mineralogy, chemical composition, and fossils preserved in the
sediments give a valuable insight into the changes that have
occurred in the oceans and atmosphere during the last 1 or 2 hundred
million years.

NSF's climate, long-range mapping and prediction (CLIMAP)
Program has been examining climatic conditions of the last 700,000
years, the period of the most recent ice age on Earth. Using statistical
techniques that allow the distribution and relative abundance of
fossils in deep-sea sediments to be related to sea-surface
temperatures and salinity at their time of deposition, scientists in
this program have produced a map of sea-surface temperatures
18,000 years ago. This is an important point during the last ice age
because it marks the time of most extensive ice cover. This map
provides the data needed to reconstruct the climate of the world
during the last ice age, because ocean temperatures play an
important role in driving atmospheric circulation. Data from this
map are being used by atmospheric scientists in numerical models of
paleoclimates.

Temperature distributions in the ocean 18,000 years ago show
some striking differences from those of today's ocean. The change in
midlatitude regions reaches and sometimes exceeds 10° C. Low
latitude changes are about 20° C, and some subtropical areas show
no change. There was apprently a marked equatorward displace-
ment of oceanographic polar fronts in the North and South Atlantic
and South Pacific oceans, but not in the North Pacific. Steepened
thermal gradients across these fronts apparently marked the axis of
intensified westerly winds in both hemispheres. A zonal band of
wind-blown, continentally derived quartz has been found to shift
southward during glacial times in response to the changing wind
conditions.

Sediments for the last few hundred thousand years can, for the
most part, be obtained with standard coring techniques. To study the
climatic history recorded in older sediments, however, drill dores

43

obtained by the DSDP must be used. Drilling in the southern oceans
has produced evidence of continental glaciation in Antarctica as
early as 20 million years ago. Drilling in the North Atlantic has
suggested that continental glaciation in northern latitudes may have
begun 5 million years ago.

With the advent of plate-tectonic theory, the geologist's formerly-
held view that the ocean basins were stable has been radically
altered. The movement of the continents is now accepted to be
closely related to the creation, destruction, and modification of the
ocean basins. One of the most interesting studies to understand the
evolution of the oceans was the work connected with DSDP legs 39
and 40. These legs were designed to probe the early history of the
South Atlantic recorded in the sediments off Africa and South
America. Scientists now theorize that the South Atlantic was
initiated as a very narrow crack when Africa began to separate from
South America. Fossil remains of plants and animals indicate that
this crack was first occupied by deep, freshwater lakes similar to the
present rift-valley lakes of East Africa. As the rift broadened, the
lakes deepened and changed from fresh to salt water. Because of
sluggish circulation, the deep waters stagnated, a condition that
lasted for over 20 million years. Thousands of meters of thinly
laminated organic-rich sediments were deposited during this period.

As the continents split slowly apart, stagnant marine waters from
the south seeped northward across ridges into the newly forming
deep basins. The rate of evaporation exceeded the rate of water
inflow, and a massive layer of salt, 2,500 meters thick, was deposited
between offshore Angola and Nigeria. This layer of salt, which is
equivalent to about 10 percent of all the dissolved salt in the rest of
the oceans, was deposited in a few million years.

As South America finally separated from Africa, the period of salt
deposition ended abruptly as cool marine water invaded the South
Atlantic from the south. Numerous gaps in the sedimentary record
are found throughout the subsequent history of the South Atlantic.
These gaps may represent changes in the rate of supply and
dissolution of sedimentary material, or increases and decreases in
erosion produced by the deep bottom water circulation.

Additional knowledge of the separation of Africa and South
America has resulted from several NSF studies of the western and
eastern margins of the South Atlantic that have recently been
completed. On one 4-year program, scientists studied the geologic
history of the continental margin off Brazil and Argentina. The data
gathered in this study indicate that the early phase of the opening of
the South Atlantic occurred between 127 and 84 million years ago.

Movement along fracture zones of the separating South American
and African continents produced compressional ridges, which

44

served as early sediment traps. Extensive work on the deep-sea
sediment accumulation produced from the Amazon River suggests
these deposits began to form only about 25 million years ago. Off the
southern coast of Argentina, the Falkland Plateau and Falkland
Islands have been shown to be a fragment of continental crust that
was fractured from Africa as the southernmost portion of the South
Atlantic began to form.

Work on the western African continental margin suggests a
somewhat earlier opening history of the South Atlantic. Sediments
as thick as 7 kilometers buried the fragmented continental basement
and adjacent oceanic basement off the west coast and formed abroad
continental rise and abyssal plain. The source of much of this clastic
debris is believed to be the Orange River. Sedimentation has
apparently been much more extensive off the northern portion of
West African coast than to the south.

The South Atlantic is only one area of paleo-oceanographic study.
Numerous DSDP drill cores in the equatorial Pacific have allowed
the history of that portion of the ocean to be traced over the last 50 to
60 million years. Upwelling of nutrient-rich bottom water along the
equatorleads to high biologic productivity and, hence, high sediment
deposition on the underlying ocean floor. For the oldest sediment,
this zone of high deposition is presently displaced to the north of the
equator, a natural consequence of the northward component of
movement of the crust of the Pacific Ocean beneath the zone of high
equatorial productivity. An abrupt change in the type of sediment
preserved on the sea floor is also noticeable approximately 40
million years ago. Prior to that time, the sediments are composed
predominantly of the remains of siliceous organisms, and younger
sediments are dominantly produced by calcareous organisms. Large
changes with time in the width and sedimentation rate of these
calcareous sediments point to major variations in depositional
conditions during the last 40 million years.

As in the South Atlantic, numerous gaps are present in the Pacific
and represent several major phases of erosion. The earliest phase,
approximately 45 million years ago, can be related to the northward
movement of Australia away from Antarctica. Cold, deep bottom
water in the Indian Ocean began at the time to spread into the Pacific
through gaps left by the separating continents. This influence of the
Australian-Antarctic separation or deep water flow into the Pacific
has been suggested by earlier work supported by both NSF and
ONR. A major erosional event in the equatorial Pacific about 12
million years ago may be attributed to enhanced bottom water
production in the Antarctic as a result of a major increase in
Antarctic glaciation.

The analyses and syntheses of sedimentary data from the DSDP

45

will continue to be one of the most exciting areas of research in the
coming years. Scientists are just beginning to understand how to
interpret the record revealed in sediments in terms of the
evolutionary history of the ocean basins and overlying water
columns.

Resources of the Sea Floor

A major project of NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and
Meteorological Laboratories in Miami is the study of the geological,
geophysical, and geochemical characteristics of a 3° corridor
between Cape Hatteras and Cape Blanc, northwest Africa. This strip
is continuous with the crustal section established across North
America by the U.S. Trans-Continental Geophysical Survey. The
purpose of the work is to provide, for the first time, a "standard
marine section" to which other oceanic geophysical activities may be
related. However, the project is also providing valuable information
about the ocean bottom that can be applied to the research for subsea
oil and minerals.

Preliminary findings have already revealed the presence of
possible salt domes in the deep ocean basin off Cap Blanc, the first
region where possible salt domes have been identified in the deep
ocean basin. If true salt domes, their presence would suggest
substantial oil potential. Subsequently, other possible salt domes
have been identified at other sites in the Atlantic and South Atlantic
basins. Another recent accomplishment of this project was locating
the Trans-Atlantic Geotraverse (TAG) Hydrothermal Field, the first
hydrothermal mineral deposit (very pure manganese hydroxide,
discovered in the median valley of a midocean ridge). The deposit's
existence would suggest that oceanic crust that paves 2/3 of the earth
and is incorporated into certain islands and continents may be far
richer in minerals than previously suspected and point up the
importance of further studies of plate tectonics in relation to the
exploration for mineral deposits both on land and at sea.

Perhaps the most exploitable resource of the deep-sea floor is the
iron-manganese concretions commonly referred to as manganese
nodules. These are found on the ocean floor in a number of areas in
the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Mineral companies are particularly
interested in their high copper, nickel, and cobalt content, partly
because of the diminished reserves of these ores under land surface
and partly because of the environmental damage caused by the
surface mining of low-grade ores.

In an NSF program, scientists are trying to answer two major
questions about these strange nodules. The first is what processes
are responsible for the incorporation of exceptionally high concen-
trations of copper, nickel, and cobalt in nodules in certain limited

46

regions. The second major question is what controls the areal
density of nodules, especially in regions where the nodules have a
high copper-nickel content. A high density of nodules at the
sediment surface is one of the conditions that determines whether a
nodule field can be regarded as being of potential economic value. In
the program study area in the northern equatorial Pacific, it has been
observed that significant areal density variations occur over
distances ranging from a few meters to a few kilometers. In a related
effort, NOAA's Sea Grant Program is studying shallow-water
nodules. Shallow nodule deposits were discovered near Hawaii in
early 1970. Initial findings indicate that these deposits are far more
extensive than previously recognized and many contain higher
concentrations of noble metals than those reported for deep-sea
nodules.

Some of the possible environmental effects of deep-sea mining of
the manganese nodules include destruction of bottom-dwelling
organisms; a general stirring up of sediment from the ocean floor;
and the introduction of sediment, organisms, and bottom water into
the water column and surface waters. These impacts are not
necessarily all damaging; the introduction of nutrient-rich bottom
waters into surface waters could, for example, lead to an increase in
growth of various surface organisms.

NOAA is managing a study (Project DOMES] in the equatorial
Pacific south of Hawaii to provide baseline measurements and to
gain an understanding of physical, biological, and chemical
mechanisms in the study area and how they might be affected by
mining. If the investigation indicates that environmental effects are
minimal, the investigators will formulate guidelines for future large-
scale mining operations and establish standards for monitoring
during these operations.

USGS has a lead role in the Circum-Pacific Map Project, an
international effort to assemble information on the distribution and
relations of mineral resources in and adjacent to the Pacific Basin,
including manganese nodules, petroleum, and other mineral com-
modities of the sea floor. Using data supplied by the Navy,
universities engaged in ONR- and NSF-supported compilations, and
other sources, USGS has prepared two series of base maps for use in
plotting the information. International teams of government,
university, and industry scientists have begun assembling data on
many aspects of the geology, geophysical properties, and resources
of the sea-floor and coasts for use in preparing overlays to the maps
when issued and to identify gaps in existing knowledge. Through its
International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE) and IPOD
programs, NSF is supporting much of the university participation.
NASA is sponsoring compilations of data obtained from satellites

47

for incorporation into the maps. Anticipated results are expected to
aid planning for future exploration of the basin and to stimulate
international cooperative studies. USGS, the U.S. Bureau of Mines
(USBM), and other components of DOI conduct a variety of studies
devoted to discovery, evaluation, recovery, and processing of
manganese nodules and other mineral resources of the sea floor. In
April 1975 USBM began a definitive compilation of data concerning
the location, density, and concentration of resouce elements in
Pacific Ocean manganese nodules for inclusion in its Minerals
Availability System. During 1974, DOI established an Ocean Mining
Administration with the following functions:

(1) To represent and coordinate the full scope of DOI's mineral
commodity and resource management interests with Congress, other
Federal agencies, and the mineral industries

(2) To formulate Federal policies on ocean mineral resources
development

(3) To prepare legislation and coordinate preparation of suppor-
ting documentation

Processes and Properties of Modern Sedimentation

Federally funded research on more recent marine sediments can be
divided into two broad categories. The first category encompasses
studies of the physical properties of marine sediments. Because a
high percentage of our knowledge of sediments has come through the
use of acoustic techniques, it is important to understand those
properties that control the acoustic"signature" of marine sediments.
Programs in the second category are examinations of the processes
of erosion and redistribution of sediments on the deep-sea floor and
continental shelves. Recent research has shown that certain regions
of the sea floor are a dynamic environment in which sediment
transport is the rule rather than the exception. Both of these
categories of research are needed to provide information required for
offshore construction and development.

The objective of Navy-funded programs in acoustic research is to
provide a global capability to predict or assess the ocean floor
environment for any naval system or operational requirement. This
program comprises three parts: shipboard studies, which include
towing of various types of arrays to record the interaction of sound
with the sea-floor sediments and crustal layers; laboratory studies
of sound speed in various rock and sediment layers; and theoretical
studies on data acquisition and signal processing.

Under this program, scientists working off the Atlantic coast of
South America have shown the presence of sea-floor reflectivity
provinces that can be related directly to sedimentation processes

48

presently active on the ocean floor. To interpret quantitatively the
reflection arrivals from the sedimentary column, another program
has developed an in situ velocimeter attached to the head of a
sediment corer. The in situ velocity data are now in the process of
being analyzed and compared with sediment velocities obtained
with remote-sensing techniques. Navy scientists are attempting to
establish a correlation between the mineralogical and physical
properties of marine sediments through in situ as well as laboratory
measurements of their acoustic properties. Important results of this
study include the finding that sound-wave attenuation is a function
of grain size, porosity, and the frequency of the propagating sound
wave.

Only recently, with the development of deeply towed instrument
packages and deep-diving submersibles, have scientists been able to
view the processes of sediment transport and erosion on the deep-sea
floor. The most extensive transport occurs in areas characterized by
vigorous, thermohaline-driven, bottom water circulation.

An NSF-sponsored program on the Blake-Bahamas Outer Ridge
has recently returned startling evidence of sediment in that part of
the Atlantic. The ridge itself is a thick sequence of sediments
deposited from a deep current that flows southward off the
continental margin of the eastern United States. For many years
scientists had observed strange bottom echo patterns from this
ridge. It was believed that these patterns were produced by
sediment-dune formations. Examination by a deeply-towed instru-
ment package, however, has shown that the strange echo patterns
are produced by steep-sided, flat-floored furrows ranging from 1 to
100 meters wide and from 1/2 to 20 meters deep. The spacing of these
furrows is typically on the order of hundreds of meters, and
individual furrows are commonly traceable over several kilometers.
The origin of these erosional features has not been definitely
established, but they may be related to a secondary component of
water flow, which acts in a direction perpendicular to the direction
of the main flow. Under NSF and ONR support, similar features have
been found near Samoa in the western Pacific. Programs are
presently underway in the Atlantic to examine other sediment
accumulations like the Blake-Bahamas Outer Ridge for similar
evidence of sediment erosion and transport.

A completely different type of evidence has been found for deep-
sea sediment transports at a 2,500-meter depth on the Carnegie River
in the eastern equatorial Pacific. Using a deeply towed instrument
package, scientists were able to observe a field of crescentic
(barchan) sand dunes composed of foraminifera on the north flank of
the ridge. The dunes are apparently propelled by fast currents of
dense bottom water that spill northward across the ridge. A

49

reexamination of this dune field indicated movement by a number of
the dunes over a 2-year span, allowing one of the first estimates of
mass flux for transported deep-sea sediments.

Although complicated by the need for fine-scale observational
techniques, investigation of the erosion and transport of deep-sea
sediments will be an important field of research in coming years.
With increasing use of the continental shelves, the need to
understand sediment transport in these regions has been increasing-
ly recognized. In a USGS program along the coasts of Spain, Florida,
Washington, and Oregon, consistent patterns of ripples and
associated bed forms have been related to the dynamics of bottom
orbital water velocities associated with shoaling waves, and to
sediment grain size.

The USGS has also examined modern sedimentation processes off
the northern coast of Alaska, where sea ice is a dominant agent. A
shear zone develops during the winter between the grounded ice that
forms near shore and the floating pack ice offshore. Examination of
the continental shelf sediments beneath this shear zone has shown
deep gouges and furrows produced by the grounded ice. The
processes that form bottom features will pose major problems for the
building of sea-floor structures along the Arctic coast of Alaska and
Canada.

NOAA's shelf-dynamics program is attempting to quantify the
pattern (rates and directions) of sediment erosion, transport, and
deposition on continental shelves. Such information is essential for
resolving the conflicting human uses of the shelf surface. The prime
area of study is the New York Bight, which is presently suffering
from environmental impact problems (primarily due to waste
disposal practices) that will be common to most shelves by the turn
of the century.

The program is twofold, investigating both sand and suspended
fine sediment transport. The flux of suspended sediment across the
New York Bight is being examined by means of water sampling, and
optical and sonic sensing techniques. Studies indicate that the
voluminous quantities of sewage sludge dumped into the Bight do
not settle immediately to the bottom, but become a component of the
natural fine-sediment transport system. Calculations show that a
single storm may resuspend fine sediments from the bottom and
generate a natural suspended sediment load equivalent to weeks of
sewage sludge dumping.

Sand transport in the New York Bight Apex is being estimated by
computations based on near-bottom current-meter records, and
independently, by means of mapping the growth of radioisotope
sand tracer dispersal patterns. Studies are presently concentrated
on the inner shelf where determinations of sea-floor stability are

50

important to select sites for sewage and dredge spoil dump sites,
sewage outfalls, offshore nuclear powerplants, and deepwater
terminals.

The studies indicate that the sandy inner shelf floor undergoes
brief, intense periods of sand entrainment and transport. These flow
events last for hours or days and are associated with winter storms.
They are separated by days or weeks of quiescence. One or two
major storm flows a year appear to move more sand than all the rest
of the flow events combined.

Continued study of such flow events will aid in the delineation of
long-term areas of erosion and deposition on the sea floor. Such
studies will require more detailed and systematic observations of
near-bottom flow and sea-floor response than are presently being
obtained with available instrumentation. Current meters that can
efficiently resolve shallow water motions dominated by oscillatory
wave surge are presently being developed. Sea-floor sensing
systems that use these meters to measure fluid motions and that also
measure turbidity, bottom roughness, and the passage of surface
waves are being developed under the sponsorship of NOAA, USGS,
ERDA, and NSF.

Important supplementary evidence concerning the nature of
sediment transport on the continental shelf is being gained by
NOAA's studies of topography and bedforms on the Atlantic
Continental Shelf. Formerly, shelf sediments were thought to have
dated from lower stands of sea level, and the shelf floor was
considered to be an area where negligable sediment transport
occurred. Evidence is now accumulating to indicate that winter
storms may set the entire Middle Atlantic Shelf water column into
motion, with velocities sufficient to entrain bottom sand across
much of the shelf surface. This surface is characterized by a ridge
and swale topography, at sand ridges 10 meters high and 2 to 4
kilometers apart. Swales between ridges tend to be marked by a
"sand ribbon" pattern of bands of sand 10 to 100 meters wide,
separated by bands of coarser sand or gravel. The sand ribbons
appear to be the "signature" of storm flows, the result of zones of
bottom current divergence and convergence during individual
storms, or storm seasons. The larger sand ridges appear to be
analogous to the large-scale dune systems of the world's deserts.
They have been slowly growing to their present size for part or all of
the period since the Pleistocence ice age. The stability of the ridge
and swale topography bears directly on the use of the shelf surface
for ocean dumping and for sea-floor structures (sewage outfalls,
nuclear powerplants, and oil rigs).

Other programs of research on the transport of continental shelf
sediments are funded by NSF, the Navy, ERDA, and BLM. With the

51

growing demand for resources from the continental shelves,
research on the sediment dynamics of this region will become even
more important in coming years.

52

Chapter IV

MARINE RECREATION

Outdoor recreation has become a major part of the American way
of life. The increase in leisure time, mobility, and affluence among
our population during the past 30 years has opened ever-growing
opportunities for people to use the Nation's outdoor resources. As a
consequence, outdoor recreation management has become in-
creasingly more complex.

In addition to the increased demand for outdoor recreation,
substantial changes have occurred in people's habits. With more
leisure, people have greater opportunity to participate in new
activities. Technical advances in recreational equipment and
clothing have also placed an additional burden upon our resources
by increasing recreational skills. Coastal areas historically have had
great attraction as places for living and working. They now are
taking much of the brunt of the increased demand for recreation.

The four coasts of the United States — Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and
Great Lakes — offer almost limitless opportunities for recreational
use of water. The United States, excluding Alaska, has 36,900 miles
of coastline, of which 23 percent is in public ownership (Federal: 11
percent; State: 12 percent). Expressed another way, 59 percent of our
coastline is undeveloped, 16 percent is used for nonrecreational
purposes, and 25 percent is used for recreation. (Nine percent is
public, and 16 percent is private.)

Planning

As a result of the extensive changes that have taken place in
outdoor recreation, it was inevitable that more consideration would
be given to the development and management of new outdoor
recreation areas and facilities. Public Law (P.L.) 88-29 directs the
Secretary of the Interior to formulate and maintain a comprehensive
nationwide outdoor recreation plan. The Bureau of Outdoor

53

Recreation (BOR) in DOI was delegated the responsibility for
developing the nationwide plan. BOR is also responsible for
providing technical assistance on outdoor recreation to the States,
their political subdivisions, and the private sector. It is also charged
with responsibility for coordinating outdoor recreation programs,
research, and education.

BOR published its Nationwide Outdoor Recreation Plan on
November 16, 1973, under the title "Outdoor Recreation — A Legacy
for America." In developing the plan, BOR received assistance from
all facets of Government and private expertise. The plan concerns
itself with

(1) Major leisure-time recreation activities that occur out of doors

(2) Guides for coordinating Federal efforts

(3) Strengthening the cooperative relationships between Federal
and non-Federal efforts

The Nationwide plan called for the following Federal actions
regarding coastal recreation programs:

In order to take full advantage of the recreation and fish and wildlife
opportunities afforded by shoreline resources, Federal agencies are called
upon to accelerate the evaluation of their holdings in the coastal zone to
determine which beaches and shorelines can be made available for increased
public recreation use.

States can complement this Federal action by evaluating present laws
relating to ownership and access and, where necessary, taking steps to
provide public access to beaches and shorelines.

State and local Governments also should develop plans and programs to
utilize Land and Water Conservation Fund monies for acquisition of beaches,
shorelines, and estuaries with recreation values, and should encourage and
assist conservation organizations in purchasing and obtaining donations of
key parcels of shorelines.

Management Support

NOAA assists States in the development of coastal management
programs and supports university projects that indirectly benefit
recreational interests. NOAA's OCZM provides grants to coastal
States, to assist in the development of management programs for the
land and water resources of their coastal zones, and subsequent
grants to coastal States for administering these management
programs and for the acquisition, development, and operation of
estuarine sanctuaries. The Office of Sea Grant, also in NOAA, issues
grants to universities for research, education, training, and
extension services. Grants for nonrecreational research may often
benefit recreational interests. Of some 700 projects supported by the
Sea Grant Program, only 21 are directly related to marine recreation.
California, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas have taken the lead

54

in this respect, and have been concerned with boating and marina
operations and the economic impact of recreation and tourism on the
coasts.

DOI is the Federal Government's major natural-resource manag-
ing agency. Its multidisciplinary program offers numerous oppor-
tunities to the outdoor recreation seeker. The National Park Service
currently manages 28 coastal areas that provide a wide variety of
recreational choices. These areas include eight on the Atlantic, four
on the Gulf, seven on the Pacific coasts, five along the Great Lakes,
and two each in the Caribbean and Hawaii. They offer the
recreationist experience in marine environments that vary from the
megalopolis gateways of New York and San Francisco to the
rockbound coast of Maine, the Everglades of Florida, and the
underwater trails of the Virgin Islands.

BLM, the Nation's largest landholder, offers considerable
shoreline for the recreation seeker on all coasts, particularly on the
Pacific, which includes the King Range National Conservation Area.
In addition to Pacific holdings, BLM owns some fine beaches on the
Gulf of Mexico.

The third major DOI landholder, FWS, offers a wide assortment of
National Wildlife Refuges on all four coasts. Although the primary
purpose of these areas is to provide nesting, resting, and wintering
areas for waterfowl, shore birds, and other bird or other animal
species, such areas do afford great opportunity for the outdoor lover
who is interested in boating, photography, nature trails, and other
outdoor activities.

FWS also administers the Pitman-Robinson Act of 1937 and the
Dingell-Johnson Act of 1950. These acts provide matching monies to
the States to enhance and manage their fish and wildlife resources by
acquisition and development of lands and waters for hunting and
fishing. Over the years, these two Federal assistance programs have
contributed greatly to increasing the State coffer of lands and waters
available for outdoor recreation. Although the primary purpose of
these acts was oriented to fish and wildlife programs, other outdoor
activities that have benefited include wildlife photography, boating,
swimming, birdwatching, and many other activities. Of equal
importance, however, money through these acts has been used to
acquire lands and waters for the protection of many of our unique
areas such as estuaries and wetlands.

DOI also provides much indirect support to recreation programs.
For example, the Office of Water Research and Technology, in fiscal
year 1975, supported eight research projects that related to such
matters as the impact of pesticides and logging on water quality,
control of mosquito larvae, eutrophication, and groundwater
resources.

55

By far the most important support for marine recreation, however,
comes through the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965
(L&WCF), as amended. The objective of the State portion of this act is
to provide financial assistance to the States and their political
subdivisions for the acquisition and development of outdoor
recreation areas and facilities. The program is administered through
BOR and provides acquisition and development grants that may be
used for a w^ide range of outdoor recreation projects. All assisted
areas must be open to the general public and not limited to special
groups. Development of basic rather than elaborate facilities is
favored, and priority consideration generally is given to projects
serving urban populations. Fund monies are not available for the
operation and maintenance of facilities. A State, to qualify for the
L&WCF program, is required to prepare and maintain a statewide
comprehensive outdoor recreation plan. These plans, in addition to
being required by the L&WCF program, have broad utility for
meeting all State outdoor recreation needs. Federal grants of over $1
billion have been made to the States, territories, and the District of
Columbia since the inception of the program. Well over 50 percent of
these monies have benefited water-oriented recreation projects,
with a major portion being used in the four coastal areas.

Other Federal agencies that provide for outdoor recreation
opportunity in marine regions include the Forest Service in the
Department of Agriculture, DOD, and Department of Transportation
(DOT).

The Forest Service manages extensive amounts of land on our
coasts, particularly on the Pacific Coast and along the Great Lakes.
Much of this land offers a wide assortment of outdoor recreation
opportunity as well as access to the coastal waters.

DOD manages or controls coastal lands and waters on all four
coasts. The lands held by DOD at various military reservations
possess a variety of outdoor recreational attributes, although there
are restrictions on public access. In recent years, however, DOD has
made a concerted effort to make a substantial portion of their lands,
including some key beaches, available for public use.

Through its program on Small Beach Erosion Control projects,
COE has made a substantial contribution to the outdoor recreation
effort in the marine environment. COE in this program offers
financial assistance to the States and local governments for erosion
control and beach stabilization projects. The States or local
governments must in turn provide for a part of the financial
assistance as well as the necessary lands, continued public
ownership, access roads, and maintenance.

DOT provides assistance in a number of ways to the marine
recreation effort through the highway acts. Principally, these DOT

56

concerns center on coastal highways and parkways, rest areas that
can include water access, and bicycle trails. A most important
function of DOT, of course, is to provide financial assistance to
construct access roads to outdoor recreation areas.

Boating

As of 1975 there are approximately 9 million recreational boats, 18
million boat operators, and 50 million boaters. The number of boats
and operators are projected to increase at a rate of 5 percent a year
with the trend toward more leisure time. Boating often accompanies
and stimulates a number of other outdoor activities such as fishing,
water skiing, hunting, and swimming.

The USCG in DOT is involved in a number of programs that
benefit recreational boating. The declared purpose of the Federal
Boat Safety Act of 1971 (FBSA) is". . . to improve boating safety and
to foster greater development, use, and enjoyment of all the waters of
the United States. . . ." The act authorizes various means to
encourage greater uniformity of boating laws between the various
States and the Federal Government and a higher degree of
reciprocity and comity among various jurisdictions. This will
greatly ease the burdens of the large number of boaters who trailer or
sail their craft across jurisdictional lines. The prime means for
encouraging this uniformity of State boating programs is theFederal
financial assistance authorized under the FBSA. These funds may be
used for costs of facilities, equipment, supplies, personnel salaries,
personnel training, public boat-safety education, and other expenses
that the USCG deems appropriate.

Another program authorized by the FBSA that provides a major
new benefit to recreational boaters is the establishment of national
construction and performance safety standards for boats and
associated equipment. The FBSA authorizes a defect notification
program, similar to the automobile recall program, which requires
boat manufacturers to notify owners of safety defects discovered in
their boats and to correct the defects. This program also includes
requirements for the correction of defects resulting from non-
compliance with USCG construction safety standards.

Some of the USCG's more traditional benefits to the recreational
boater include boating education efforts (both classroom and
correspondence courses), courtesy boat examinations, regatta and
safety patrols, and search and rescue assistance. These latter
functions are cooperative efforts between regular USCG personnel
and civilian members of the USCG Auxiliary. The USCG's programs
of research and development, boating safety, and search and rescue
are conducted to improve the safety of the boater. These efforts not
only prevent accidents from happening to the boater but also

57

improve his chances of surviving an accident if one should occur.

The USCG is using part of its grant funds allocated to national
nonprofit public-service organizations to study and sponsor a pilot
program that will introduce boating safety education programs into
the public school systems.

COE, DOD, affords recreational boating assistance through three
of its programs: aquatic plant control, small navigation projects, and
snagging and clearing for navigation. The Rivers and Harbors Act of
1965, P.L. 89-298, provides for the cooperation and assistance of the
COE with State and local government agencies to control obnoxious
aquatic plants in rivers, harbors, and allied waters through
specialized services and the dissemination of technical information.
Non-Federal interests must agree to hold the Government of the
United States free from damages and to finance 30 percent of the
costs of control operations. The program is designed to deal
primarily with weed infestations of major economic significance,
including such weeds as water hyacinth, alligator weed, elodea,
water milfoil, and others that constitute a known economic problem
of importance in the area involved.

Small navigational projects, authorized through P.L. 86-645,
provide the most practicable and economic means of meeting the
needs of general navigation for projects not specifically authorized
by Congress. COE designs and constructs the project. Each project
selected must be technically feasible and economically justified. The
non-Federal sponsoring agency must (1) agree to assume full
responsibility for all project costs in excess of the Federal cost limit
of $1 million; (2) contribute toward project costs for construction
and maintenance of recreational benefits, land enhancement, or
other special local benefits; (3) provide all necessary land,
easements, and rights-of-way; (4) hold and save the United States
free from damages; and (5) provide adequate public landings or
wharves, piers, access roads, parking areas, and other needed public
facilities that will be open and available to all on equal terms. Local
cost participation requirements and procedures for determining the
local share of project cost are similar to those for navigation projects
specifically authorized by Congress under regular authorization
procedures.

This program has become an important factor in providing for
boating facilities in many sections of the country, but has been of
particular importance in recent years in the Great Lakes system.
Here it has helped solve problems pertaining to boat access and safe
harbors, both of which are vitally important to the developing
salmonoid fishery of the Great Lakes. In addition to this program, the
navigational snagging and clearing programs of the COE, although
helping all aspects of marine navigation, have had an especially

58

beneficial effect on small-boat operators.

NOAA, with its varied involvement in marine programs, also
provides valuable services to the water recr eat ionists. Through both
the National Weather Service and the National Ocean Survey, major
contributions are made to marine recreation. Examples are the
special Weather Service forecasts and Ocean Survey charts designed
for small-boat operators. The Weather Service regards about 2/3 of
its marine and Great Lakes program as recreation-oriented, and
about 20 percent of the NOAA charting service is for small craft
operations.

Recreational Fishing

The Nationwide Outdoor Recreation Plan, "Outdoor Recreation —
A Legacy of America," reports that 24 percent of the respondents of
the national recreation survey conducted during the summer of 1972
engaged in recreational fishing. Among the activities measured,
fishing was exceeded in popularity only by picknicking, sightseeing,
driving, walking for pleasure, and swimming.

It is conservatively estimated that 33 million people in the United
States fish for pleasure and that more than 9 million of them fished in
the marine environment in 1970. These fishermen reported catching
817 million fish weighing a total of 1.47 billion pounds.

It is important to note that while angling occurs on our beaches,
bays, and estuaries, with and without the use of boats, hook-and-line
fishing does not constitute the entirety of recreational fishing.
Subsurface activities, whether they be by diving and spearfishing or
wading and clamming, include a substantial number of participants.
Recreational fishing includes a great variety of personal interests
and is an activity that has a definite socioeconomic effect on our
coastal areas.

NMFS in NOAA has been responsible for marine recreational
fisheries research and development of the Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic
coasts. NMFS has recently been preparing a National Fisheries Plan.
It is expected that this plan will establish national policy for our
coastal fishery resources and for our fishing industries. It will
address food production and recreational fishing as well as lay out
an overall strategy for the future of U.S. fisheries. It is designed to
assist all those involved in marine fisheries.

There is a great need for a sport-fishing plan. Although NMFS is
basically concerned with the commercial fisheries, it also has a
responsibility to marine sport fishermen. The number of recreational
fishermen has more than doubled from 1955 to 1970. NMFS has the
responsibility to restore and maintain fishery stocks important to
both the commercial and the recreational fishing industries.

NOAA is well aware of the importance of marine sport fishing as it

59

exists today, both as a recreational resource and as a livelihood for
those who service recreational fishing. NMFS has expanded its staff
at all levels to interface with the recreational fishing interests and to
communicate with the many conservation organizations. Through
the Migratory Game Fish Act of 1959, NMFS has conducted
extensive research on game fish in the marine environment. This
research has produced some excellent results that have been or will
be of direct benefit to the saltwater angler. A comprehensive survey
of marine recreational fishing activities was begun in 1974 to
determine how many people fish, what they catch, how much they
spend, what their fishing preferences are, and other appropriate
information. This initial survey covers only the northeastern United
States, and is being done through telephone interviews with
followup mail questionnaires. The first four sections of the long-
awaited Anglers' Guide to the United States East Coast, describing
marine recreational fishing opportunities and facilities, were
recently published. These publications are designed to aid fishermen
in their quest for both support facilities and for the habitat
preferences of various species. The remaining four sections are
scheduled for publication late in fiscal year 1975. A similar
publication is being prepared for the West coast.

An exciting venture in early fiscal year 1974 was NMFS
participation in NASA's Skylab project. Six northwest Florida sport
fishing and charter boat organizations and a total of 325 anglers
turned out on the August 4 and 5 weekend to help gather
oceanographic and fishing information to compare with remotely
sensed oceanographic data acquired by aircraft and the Skylab
spacecraft. The analysis showed that certain oceanic characteristics
can be monitored from air and spacecraft and be used to determine
game-fish abundance and distribution.

Since 1972, in cooperation with State and university groups, the
Northwest Fisheries Center at Seattle has conducted weekly
acoustical surveys of Lake Washington, from June through August,
to locate concentrations of sockeye salmon. After each weekly
survey, a chart showing the depth distribution of salmon concentra-
tion is issued to the news media for use by anglers. Response by the
fishing public has been enthusiastic. Anglers use the information to
improve fishing strategies for species previously thought un-
available.

To relieve some of the sport fishing pressure on Pacific salmon, a
new project was begun in 1973 to locate, identify, and disseminate
information on the rockfish and flatfish of Puget Sound, as yet not
heavily used by sportsmen. In 1974, several popular articles were
printed to encourage sport fishermen to pursue these stocks.

Some of the more widely sought game fishes on all coasts, except

60

the Pacific Northwest, are the marlins, sailfish, and wahoo. NMFSis
involved in cooperative tagging programs of such billfishes in
Hawaii, southern California, Florida, and the Northeast. A com-
prehensive collection of scientific papers on the billfishes and
billfisheries of the world was recently published. These volumes
constitute a valuable contribution to the scientific literature of these
species.

NMFS is cooperating with the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution in its continuing program of tagging bluefin tuna, one of
the principal large game fishes of the northwest Atlantic. It is also
engaged in a cooperative program with sportsmen in tagging sharks
out of Narragansett, R.I.

During 1973, and again in 1974, NMFS scientific personnel
monitored over three dozen fishing tournaments to secure catch and
effort data and take scientific measurements on migratory marine
game fishes. Comprehensive newsletters conveying information
gathered at these tournaments, as well as tagging information, were
sent to about 3,000 interested persons.

The newest NMFS research facility, the Port Aransas, Tex.,
laboratory was completed in 1973. Initial studies include develop-
ment of techniques to capture, maintain, and induce spawning in
speckled trout and summer flounder, and to study their physical and
biological requirements for successful spawing, hatching, develop-
ment, and growth in captivity. This new facility is the last of those
authorized under the Migratory Game Fish Act of 1959.

The fishery resources of our fourth coastal water area, the Great
Lakes, fall under the jurisdiction of FWS, DOI. The Great Lakes have
been subjected to tremendous changes in fish populations in past
years as a result of changes in water quality, fishing pressure, and
competition among fish species.

Probably no other single event marked so great a change in the fish
populations of the Great Lakes as did the establishment of the sea
lamprey. This parasite, which became established in Lake Ontario in
the early 1900's, and later in the four upper lakes upon completion of
the Wetland Canal, has been largely responsible for the destruction
of several of the most valuable commercial and recreational fish
species of these inland seas. This disaster resulted in the founding of
an international commission to seek a solution to the problems
caused by the sea lamprey. Through research, primarily by FWS, an
effective method of sea-lamprey control was found.

With the lamprey under control, FWS, Canadian Fishery Service,
and the eight cooperating Great Lakes States have launched a fishery
restoration program in several of the Great Lakes. This consists of
developing and managing the important native species like the Lake
trout, and the exotic species such as the Pacific coast rainbow trout.

61

European brown trout, and the Pacific salmons (chinook and coho).
FWS, through its program on fishery research and sport fish
management, has been able to develop and disseminate information
needed for the protection and enhancement of freshwater fishery
resources, and to provide technical assistance to State conservation
agencies and Indian tribes in the management of waters for sport
fishing.

The FWS research program has expanded our knowledge of fish
physiology and behavior, as influenced by usual or abnormal
environmental variables. This new information has been used
primarily to improve the management of public fishery resources,
and secondarily to advance related private enterprises. The FWS
provides fisheries assistance by conducting biological examinations
of aquatic habitats and offers specific recommendations based on
the conditions found to exist. Stocking from National Fish
Hatcheries may be one of the management tools considered to
improve the resource.

Through the Anadromous Fish Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-304), FWS and
NOAA are able to cooperate with the States and other non-Federal
interests in the conservation, development, and enhancement of the
Nation's anadromous fishes in the Great Lakes as well as in the
oceans. This program is divided between FWS, which is responsible
for the Great Lakes, and NMFS, which is responsible for the other
three coasts. Basically, the program consists of making funds
available for spawning-area improvement, installation of fishways,
construction of fish protection devices and hatcheries, and research
to improve management and increase anadromous fish resources.
Funds cannot be used for law enforcement, public relations, or
construction of facilities and vessels, the primary purpose of which
is to harvest, handle, and process fishery products. In addition, these
funds cannot be used for projects in the Columbia River Basin. These
projects are funded from other sources.

Basic fishery research and management of coastal, estuarine, and
anadromous species is also financed under the Dingell-Johnson
Program through grants to the States. Research monies are also
available to the States through financial grants from the Sea Grant
Program.

Fishery management through the construction of facilities has
been an important part of the Land and Water Conservation Fund
Program. In addition to the support of facilities already mentioned,
fund monies have been used to develop fishing piers in Alabama,
California, Georgia, Maryland, and Texas, and an artificial reef in
South Carolina. It is expected that the development of such facilities
will expand in the future with closer working relationships between
the Federal agencies and the States that seek such facilities.

62

Chapter V

MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATION
AND PREDICTION

An important first step in being able to ascertain and predict the
impact of man's activities on the marine environment is the
acquisition of information about normal, or preactivity, conditions
and processes. This "baseline" of data can be used as a standard
against which changes can be measured and predicted. Such
forecasts are vital in the sound planning of our uses of the ocean and
their resources. A central theme in the national effort is, therefore,
the strengthening of our ability to forecast conditions in and above
the ocean environment.

Mapping and Charting

Graphic representations of ocean conditions are and will continue
to be important adjuncts to virtually all work that goes on in the
marine environment. Most of the data used on these products are
gathered by NOAA, the USCG, and the U.S. Navy for the Defense
Mapping Agency. NOAA is responsible for satisfying civil re-
quirements for mapping and charting the waters off coasts of the
United States and its possessions. The Defense Mapping Agency's
Nautical Charting Program responds to worldwide national security
requirements as well as to a statutory responsibility to support
worldwide maritime requirements.

Last year NOAA's hydrographic survey ships worked off the
coasts of Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North
Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, and Washington. Wire-drag
operations were conducted in the Chesapeake Bay and off the Texas
coast to locate underwater obstructions to vessel traffic. In 1974 -
1975 NOAA is conducting hydrographic operations in Alaska,
California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North and South Carolina,
and Washington. Wire-drag surveys will continue in the Gulf of
Mexico, Southeast Alaska, and in major east coast port areas.

Prediction of tides and tidal currents by NOAA's National Ocean

63

Survey represents the Nations's oldest marine environmental
service. In 1974, 130 permanent tide gages were in operation along
the coasts and in major embayments of the United States, Puerto
Rico, and other territories and possessions. A tide and tidal current
survey of Puget Sound and approaches was begun, focusing on the
San Juan Islands area. This survey was conducted in cooperation
with the Canadian Government. A tide and tidal current survey of
Cook Inlet, Alaska, was completed during 1974. Requests for tidal
information, mostly for tidal data to be used in litigation for tidal
boundaries, have increased with the advent of coastal zone
management programs. NOAA recently entered into agreements
with other Federal agencies, States, and local governments to
establish tide stations and provide information for marine boundary
determinations.

In a program designed to facilitate worldwide tidal predictions for
use in Navy operational planning, ONR intends to use a few newly
developed sea-floor tide recording instruments to collect data at key
open ocean locations. Work is underway to develop techniques for
computing modifications introduced by interactions with the sea
floor in coastal regions.

At the year's end, the Southeastern Coastal Plains Expedition
(SCOPE) was nearing completion by NOAA's National Ocean
Survey. SCOPE is a concentrated 2-year environmental study of a
38,000-square-mile area of coastal waters extending from Cape
Hatteras, N.C., to the vicinity of Cape Canaveral, Fla. The study is
designed to provide coastal zone administrators with data to assist
in predicting the effects of both natural processes and man's
activities in these areas.

In 1974, the USCG and NOAA began a cooperative program to add
Long-Range Aid to Navigation (LORAN) C to nautical charts,
thereby supplementing the general charting of LORAN C being
performed by the Defense Mapping Agency. The program is
expected to continue through the early 1980's paralleling implemen-
tation of the OMEGA navigational system, which should attain
worldwide coverage by 1978. The present LORAN A navigation
system will be phased out when these two systems are fully
operational.

Progress continued on NOAA's storm evacuation maps, designed
to facilitate evacuation of people from storm-threatened coastal
areas. The long-range goal of the program is to publish a total of 190
maps to cover all Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal areas
vulnerable to flooding as a result of hurricanes or other storms. In
1974 a second edition of six maps in the Houston-Galveston, Tex.,
area was published to reflect land subsidence revealed by extensive
resurveying of the region. Also completed were six maps covering

64

New York and vicinity, including Long Island, and seven maps of the
New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta regions.

NOAA's National Ocean Survey instituted a marine geodetic
program to aid in the exploration for offshore oil and natural gas.
Work began to establish the exact positions of key offshore oil
platforms; these in turn are used as reference points to accurately
position research vessels. Thirteen platforms in the Gulf of Mexico
were surveyed by means of specialized equipment that receives
signals from a U.S. Navy satellite.

During 1974, Navy ships completed over 300,000 miles of survey in
support of worldwide oceanographic, geophysical, and
antisubmarine warfare/undersea warfare (ASW/USW) charting
requirements and precise bathymetry surveys were run over 270,000
nautical miles. In addition, airborne magnetic surveys in support of
ASW and worldwide nautical charting covered over 250,000 nautical
miles. LORAN surveys were conducted in the Marianas Islands,
Maine, and Greenland and transmission facilities were surveyed in
the Indian Ocean, Florida, Maryland, Maine, Scotland, and the
Aleutian Islands. Geodetic surveys of the Alaskan Naval Petroleum
Reserve were completed in a joint program by NAVOCEANO and
the U.S. Air Force. In support of hydrographic surveys,
NAVOCEANO conducted positioning surveys in the Aegean Sea,
along the west coast of Korea, and in the Northern Philippines.
Astrogeodetic surveys were completed at Charleston, S.C.;
Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Sardinia. Plans for calendar year 1975 call for
surveys in the Dominican Republic, the Atlantic Undersea Test and
Evaluation Center (AUTEC), Bermuda, the Indian Ocean, the
Marshall Islands, the Philippines, and Norway.

In 1974, the Navy's Harbor Survey Assistance Program (HAR-
SAP] continued to operate successfully in Central and South
America. The intention of the program is to stimulate hydrographic
data collection and charting by training and assisting participating
countries in development in these areas of expertise. It is anticipated
that in 1975 new agreements will be signed with Guatemala,
Panama, and Jamaica, bringing to 10 the total number of member
countries. The program operates out of the Canal Zone in Panama
where formal training is conducted on an annual basis.

Traditional methods of making maps and charts are giving way to
advances in automation and data handling. The application of
automation techniques provides data products of greater accuracy
and at lower cost than is possible by traditional methods.
Completion of work on an automation program in NO A A is projected
for the late 1970's when it is expected that all nautical chart
production will be automated. This accomplishment will result in

65

reducing from 2 years to 6 months the time between data acquisition
and nautical chart dissemination.

The Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) is also continuing work
aimed at automating the cartographic capabilities of the
Hydrographic Center. An initial capability was achieved in August
1974 with full capability planned by 1977. DMA is supporting the
development of several systems that are designed to automate the
entire charting process from survey through chart production. A
recently developed Navy system will use a wide-swath, deep-ocean,
depth-sounding array that will, with automatic computer assist-
ance, provide in real time a countour strip chart of the ocean bottom
representing several miles in width. It was installed on board the test
ship USNS Wyman (TAGS 34] last year, and testing is scheduled to
begin during 1975. A Hydrographic Survey and Charting System
(HYSURCH) consisting of new high-speed boats, a buoy emplaced
navigation system, and an automated cartographic system aboard a
mother ship has been designed to obtain offshore bathymetry to 300
meters and to produce usable hydrographic information in 24 hours
and charts in 16 days. Testing is being undertaken on board the
USNS Harkness (TAGS 32).

Activities in the Coastal Environment

Demands and pressures on our coastal lands and resources have
risen steadily for many years. The problems thus engendered were
given explicit recognition in late 1972 with the passage of the Coastal
Zone Management Act. As a result of this legislation, strong coastal
zone management capabilities are now being development by the
states with Federal support provided by NOAA. Federal agencies
make the basic environmental data available to the States to assist
them in planning their development and protecting the marine
environment.

NOAA and a number of other agencies also support regional
efforts contributing to coastal zone management and planning. EPA,
for example, began its program of regional planning project studies
of Monterey Bay, Calif., and Galveston Bay, Tex., and is expanding it
to other coastal regions. The majorpurpose of these planning studies
is to encourage conservation and environmentally optimum develop-
ment of estuarine water and land resources and to develop water
pollution control and abatement plans for estuarine basins and the
coastal zone.

EPA's program of technical support provides assistance to State
agencies upon request. The technical support staff conducts surveys
of local pollution conditions, normally at the request of affected
States. These include surveys of polluted beaches and development

66

of baseline data on the areas and volumes of estuaries and bays. EPA
has also inaugurated a three-phase program leading to a national
coastal monitoring network. The initial phases of defining re-
quirements and available resources will be followed by the
development of sampling and surveillance programs for specific
coastal areas and of a national coastal monitoring network plan.

Other EPA environmental studies are concerned with the effects of
pollutants on marine fish and wildlife and the fate of pollutants in
the marine environment generally. Included are investigations of the
movement of heavy metals in estuarine and coastal locations,
mathematical modeling to predict time-space distribution of waste
discharges from barges and outfalls, and studies of the distribution
of viruses, metals, and chlorinated hydrocarbons in waters and
sediments of selected coastal areas. A related effort is the
investigation, assessment, and modeling of local circulation patterns
and other distributive forces at coastal locations, with a principal
focus on the heavily used New York Bight ocean disposal sites.

Important accomplishments were realized in the past year in
implementation of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries
Act of 1972. In the New York Bight region, EPA announced that all
dumping at the existing sewage sludge disposal site south of Long
Island should end by July of 1976. A new site was to be selected
further offshore, with environmental surveys and assessments to be
made by NOAA's New York Bight MESAproject and by commercial
contract. In the Gulf of Mexico, seven existing permits were
decreased to two, and the volume of wastes dumped into Gulf water
was reduced from 1.4 million tons in 1973 to 950,000 tons in 1974,
with further reductions anticipated in 1975. The USCG is developing
new surveillance tools to aid in monitoring dumping activities, and
COE initiated research on offshore dredge spoil sites as part of its
long-term dredge-spoil research program.

EPA and NOAA scientists participated in a test of at-sea
incineration of chemical wastes as an alternative to dumping at sea.
The test was held off Galveston in the fall of 1974. It appears that this
method of disposal is a feasible one, and plans are being formulated
to dispose of Air Force chemicals in the Pacific in a similar fashion.

NOAA conducted a baseline evaluation of a deepwater disposal
site in May 1974. It was found that the wastes dumped — primarily
industrial wastes from the New York and New Jersey area — seem to
disperse rapidly. Preliminary findings indicated that little, if any,
material appears to reach the bottom at the specific site itself.
However, data from this project are still being analyzed. As a
prototype dump-site characterization, this project will assist in
developing equipment and techniques for use in the future. Among
the results of such work are expected to be recommendations on

67

whether dumping should be continued and suggestions for alternate
dump sites.

NOAA's MESA Program is directed to identifying and measuring
the impact of man in the marine environment. These objectives
require comprehensive studies of marine ecology in coastal regions
selected because of known environmental problems. The studies
focus on descriptions of the total ecosystem, both in the natural state
and as a result of changes caused by natural events and man's
activities. The information provides reference information and a
data base for planning and managing marine resources. The first
MESA field project in the New York Bight is concentrating on the
fate and effects of the waste materials and contaminants dumped in
the New York Bight as a whole. (See above]. These studies are
conducted by the scientists of 17 universities, other State and
Federal agencies, and private companies as well as NOAA
organizations. Work began in 1974 to characterize alternative dump
sites for possible use in 1976.

Planning and preliminary studies have begun for the development
of a MESA project in Puget Sound. This project is concentrating on
the impact of treated municipal and other waste discharges in
southern Puget Sound. In cooperation with EPA and Canadian
authorities, the fate in Puget Sound of oil and refined petroleum
products and their potential effects on the ecosystem, are being
studied.

Because of the importance of understanding near-shore circulation
patterns in relation to environmental problems such as those
associated with offshore sewer outfalls, NOAA's Atlantic
Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories embarked on a
project to determine the residence time of the water into which nine
sewer outfalls presently discharge. This study is being conducted in
the waters lying between Miami Beach and Key Biscayne, Fla.
Various techniques such as current meter meter and dye studies are
being employed to determine the current patterns in this coastal
strip and to understand the mechanisms whereby these waters are
entrained by the Gulf Stream. Plans call for the gradual expansion of
these studies up and down the coast from Fort Lauderdale to Key
Largo.

In support of present and future dredging requirements the Navy
has completed a sediment sampling and analysis program of all
major Navy harbors. Studies are being conducted at each major
harbor to determine the scope of future dredging requirements and
their impact on the environment. Studies are also underway to detect
and minimize the adverse effects of naval construction and
operations upon the near-shore environment.

Vessel traffic system development is a continuing effort in the

68

USCG as a result of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972. The
San Francisco System is now completely operational. This system
will expand to include a vessel-movement reporting system in
Stockton and Sacramento. Major traffic systems have also been
installed in Puget Sound and Houston. A system is also under
consideration for the St. Clair River between Lake St. Clair and Lake
Huron in Michigan. These systems are expected to reduce the
number of accidents and consequent damage to the environment
from the spillage of oil and hazardous materials.

The International Field Year for the Great Lakes (IFYGL), a joint
Canadian-U.S. project focusing on Lake Ontario, has been largely
completed. With NOAA as lead agency, seven Federal agencies and
one New York State agency were involved in the U.S. effort. In FY
1976, however, the IFYGL modeling approach is being applied by
EPA to develop models for Lakes Erie and Huron, and in finer detail,
for Saginaw Bay. The current model is being used for the
International Joint Commission's water-quality assessment of Lake
Ontario. These models are being integrated to produce a three-lake
system of models that will provide not only simulations of
eutrophication effects within each lake, but also interactions
between lakes. Simulation capacity for the fate and effects of
hazardous materials is also beginning to be incorporated into these
eutrophication models. Studies are continuing to develop improved
guidelines and criteria for control of nutrients, dredge spoils, and oil
discharges, and also to assess the effectiveness of thermal and
nutrient control programs.

To gain a better understanding of the movement and mixing of
water from the land with that of the oceans, USGS undertook
detailed investigations of selected bays and estuaries. The data
collected in these projects are now being used to predict the effects of
changes in the quantity and quality of discharged water, sediments,
and wastes and to assess the consequences of proposed dredging and
filling.

USGS studies in Florida indicated the existence of a thermal drive
on the circulation of groundwater in the underlying Floridian
aquifer. Using airborne and satellite infrared imagery, scientists
found a warm sea-surface temperature anomaly 19 kilometers
southwest of Naples, Fla. On investigation by a joint USGS-NOAA
team, this anomaly proved to be the site of a warm submarine saline
spring. This spring, discharging from a limestone depression,
provides the first concrete evidence of thermal water circulation in
sea-floor sediments of regions that are far removed from volcanic
activity.

DOI's Office of Water Research and Technology (OWRT), created
during 1974 through a merger of the Department's Office of Water

69

Resources Research and its Office of Saline Water, supports more
than 20 academic and industrial research projects devoted to
describing and predicting the environments of coastal areas and the
Great Lakes. These projects deal with subjects such as water-quality
management; the effects of heated discharges, heavy metals, urban
runoff, and other pollutants on marine organisms; and improved
management models for estuaries and the Great Lakes. FWS
continues to support the Fish Pesticide Monitoring Program by
operating 100 monitoring stations throughout the United States.

Icebreading operations, to facilitate domestic commerce in coastal
waters, have been continued by the USCG. USCG polar
icebreadkers, as well as smaller icebreading vessels, have helped to
keep marine traffic on the Great Lakes moving for longer periods of
the year than ever before in history. In December 1974, as part of the
Great Lakes Demonstration Project, a memorandum of understan-
ding was entered into by NASA involving the USCG C-130 Hercules
equipped with NASA sidelooking airborne radar and ice-thickness
measuring equipment. An anticipated 55-day schedule during the
season will allow flights to traverse the lakes, and the instruction
readouts will be transmitted via satellite to a USCG/NOAA ice-
navigation center. At the center, charts will be annotated and
transmitted by facsimile in real time to vessels on the lakes. Vessel
masters will then be able to navigate in areas containing the least ice,
thereby reducing transit time and the need for icebreaker assistance.

The USCG is developing systems for pollution control and cleanup
and systems for all-weather pollution detection, classification, and
quantification from airborne and in situ platforms. The development
of prototype oily and sanitary wastewater systems is also un-
derway.

A National Weather Service project is directed to plotting more
accurately the course of the Gulf Stream off the U.S. east coast from
Florida to the mid-Atlantic States (to 38° N). This project will
provide mariners with routine depictions of the Gulf Stream from
which they may estimate current velocities for navigation purposes.
Through the analysis of sea surface temperatures and bathyther-
mograph data, the Weather Service provides all-weather informa-
tion about the location of the inner wall of the Gulf Stream. Mariners
can then approximate the band of maximum velocity currents that
parallel the inner wall and thus plan their routes accordingly. USGS
provides raw data and the use of its broadcasting facilities to the
project.

NOAA embarked on a new effort in 1974 to improve its
capabilities in tropical-storm surge prediction. A concerted effort is
being made to improve existing numerical models, develop new
models for application to broken coast features (for example, bays,

70

estuaries, and barrier islands), and to support limited research on
boundary-layer physics and oceanography directly related to
tropical-storm surge prediction.

Major Research Projects

The past year has seen considerable progress in a number of
interdisciplinary projects involving numerous Federal agencies,
and, in some instances, multinational planning and coordination. For
example, detailed understanding of the kinetic and potential energy
and the movement of large bodies of w^ater in the oceans is critical to
the development of ocean-circulation models, which are fundamen-
tal to improved environmental prediction. The Mid-Ocean Dynamics
Experiment (MODE), a joint project of NSF and the Naval Research
Laboratory (NRL), has sought to describe one important feature of
ocean circulation, medium-scale eddies. Participants from 18
academic institutions completed a 4-month field experiment in July
1973, using six ships and extensive instrumentation at a site 400
miles southwest of Bermuda. Data obtained during the 4-month field
experiment have made it possible to describe and map one of these
eddies.

The POLYMODE^ experiment, which is being planned, organized,
and conducted jointly by U.S. and Soviet scientists, will seek to
understand the energy source and number of medium-scale eddies. A
comparison of the MODE-1 area and the proposed POLYMODE site
began in mid-1974 and will continue until the start of an intensive
field program scheduled for 1977. Understanding these eddies is
fundamental to the development of a physically correct ocean-
circulation model. Such a model will provide a basis for both short-
range and long-range ocean forecasting and will fit into general
models linking the behavior of the atmosphere and oceans.

The main scientific objectives of POLYMODE are

(1) To conduct a kinematic and descriptive study of the midocean
eddy field, including eddy-eddy interactions, on significantly longer
time and larger space scales than previously studied

(2) To determine local dynamic balances in a typical midocean
region

(3) To determine the contributions to eddy transport of momen-
tum, heat, and energy, and their meridional distributions, as well as
the interaction of eddies with the mean circulation

' POLYMODE is the shortened foriri'of the combined Soviet POLYGON experiment
and U.S. MODE-I effort, both of which seek to identify the features of medium-scale
eddies.

71

(4] To explore the mechanisms of production, transformation, and
dissipation of eddy energy

(5) To develop and test numerical models of oceanic mesoscale and
general circulations, including mesoscale eddies, for the purpose of
forecasting and assessing their interaction with the atmosphere.

Definition of the linkage between the oceans and atmosphere must
be established before reliable long-range weather and climate
forecasting is possible. The close connection between abnormal sea-
surface temperatures in the North Pacific and changes in the
circulation of the atmosphere suggest that the sea serves as an
energy source for the atmosphere. This relationship between the air
and sea appears to affect the way the air moves, and thus provides
one possible explanation for unusual weather patterns over North
America. The joint NSF-ONR North Pacific Experiment (NORPAX)
is designed to study these phenomena.

During 1974 NORPAX scientists conducted the POLE experiment
900 miles north of Hawaii. It was the first in a series of experiments
that will eventually culminate in a heat-budget study aimed at
finding out how sea-surface temperature anomalies come about. In
addition, a multilayer simulation model of the North Pacific Ocean
has been developed, which includes all the major parameters
(temperature, salinity, and velocity distribution). This flexible and
efficient model is now being run on computers by scientists of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) using
oceanographic and atmospheric data to analyze the patterns and
effects of the North Pacific anomalies. Future work will include
continued statistical analysis of historical data, the continuation of
long-term monitoring programs, intensive process-oriented ex-
periments (direct measurements of latent heat flux and upper ocean
mixing), and continued refinement of analytical and numerical
models of ocean-atmosphere coupling.

Scientists in NSF's Geochemical Ocean Sections Study
(GEOSECS) have successfully obtained measurements of ocean
constituents at selected depths along Arctic-Antarctic sections in
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The measurement will provide, for
the first timr*, a systematic set of physical and chemical parameters
measured on the same water samples. These data are already
providing the basis for quantitative studies of the stirring and
mixing processes in the deep sea, the interchange of material
between deep and surface waters, and the exchange of water and
gases with the atmosphere. These data can also serve as a baseline
against which future addition of fission and waste products and
other pollutants to the sea can be measured.

The world's climate and its fluctuations occupy a position of

72

national and international attention because of the dominating
influence climate exercises on food and water supplies and on energy
consumption. In each of these areas, even relatively minor changes
that might have passed without major repercussions in the past may
now lead to crises because of the ever-increasing demands generated
by population pressures and increasing worldwide affluence.
Today's climatic research, backed by substantial technological
advances, offers the potential to predict climatic change so that man
can more readily adapt to changing environmental conditions.

A National Climate Program is being planned by NOAA to assist
the Nation to cope more effectively with climate-induced problems
by enabling the Federal Government to keep abreast of and
anticipate climate fluctuations and their impacts. This plan calls for
a monitoring effort in the world's oceans to provide increased
understanding of the ocean climate and to understand the ocean's
influence on the atmosphere.

One of the most ambitious international scientific programs ever
undertaken occurred during 1974. This was the Global Atmospheric
Research Program (GARP) Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE).
(GARP is designed to improve our understanding of global weather
forecasts and climate fluctuations.) The principal objective of GATE
was to study the structure of tropical weather systems, including
their interaction with ocean processes, and to assess the extent to
which these disturbances affect total atmospheric circulation.

An unprecedented array of international observing facilities was
deployed by participating nations, with the United States providing
major support by six Federal agencies. Headquartered in Dakar,
Senegal, the U.S. GATE Project Office coordinated the U.S.
involvement. Some 1,500 persons from the U.S. participated in the
experiment with 4,000 others from many nations, including Brazil,
Canada, France, Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic
Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the U.S.S.R.
As lead U.S. agency for GATE, NOAA coordinated the activities of
agency components in DOD, NASA, NSF, and DOT. Data were
obtained from ships, aircraft, buoys, satellites, etc. The data are now
being processed by the various nations in national processing
centers.

The preliminary evaluation of GATE suggests that the most
important objectives were successfully achieved. In the United
States more than 100 principal scientists in more than 40 institutions
are beginning to assimilate and review GATE data. Studies cover a
tremendous range of disciplines. Scientists, government agencies,
and international bodies will continue to organize and direct
activities so that all GATE objectives may be realized.

Unraveling the historical pattern of climate change is the goal of

73

NSF's CLIMAP project. CLIMAP scientists are examining past
climatic trends by studying changes in ocean current patterns,
water-mass properties, and sea-surface temperatures indicated by
the fossil record of deep-sea sediments. Reliable knowledge about
natural climate changes is essential for estimating long-range
changes influenced by man's activities, for example, those apparent-
ly caused by the release of carbon dioxide into the air from the
burning of fossil fuels.

The International Southern Ocean Studies (ISOS) program
examines another aspect of ocean circulation, the relationship of the
Antarctic circumpolar current to global ocean circulation and its
possible role in weather and climate. Field experiments will
determine the dynamics and structure of the circumpolar current,
which controls most of the water exchange between the South
Atlantic, South Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Field programs in 1974
and 1975 included a pilot program to obtain oceanographic data
under sea ice in the austral winter, field testing of surface drifters,
and a multiship expedition to the Drake Passage/Scotia Sea Region.

The first major study in NSF's Coastal Upwelling Ecosystem
Analysis (CUEA) program, JOINT-I, took place off northwest Africa
from February through May 1974. Ships, equipment, and personnel
from 11 countries took part in this 40month experiment off Cape
Blanc, northwest Africa. Data were collected by three U.S. ships, one
U.S. aircraft, and from france, Spain, Mauritania, German
Democratic Republic, and Poland. Analysis of the extensive data
from JOINT-I is now underway and will be compared to that
generated by earlier upwelling experiments off the Oregon and Baja
California coasts. Preliminary results suggest that the water
movement outside an upwelling region is probably strongly affected
by the shape of the continental shelf and slope and that a precise
description of this outer movement is essential to understanding the
total upwelling circulation. These findings will provide the basis for
planning JOINT-II, scheduled to take place in 1976. The main goal of
the upwelling research is to develop an understanding of this
phenomenon so that prediction models can provide the scientific
basis for improved management and use of the ocean's living
resources.

The Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEXj is a
multinational cooperative research program aimed at advancing
man's understanding of the large-scale response of sea ice to its
environment. The information it provides will help solve practical
problems ranging from the interaction between the ice cover and
global atmospheric circulation to those affecting the passage of ships
in ice-covered areas. NSF is responsible for planning, supervising,
and coordinating U.S. participation in AIDJEX, with project

74

management provided by the University of Washington. Par-
ticipating U.S. institutions include the University of Alaska, Oregon
State University, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, USGS,
and the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory of COE.
Participating Canadian institutions include the Bedford
Oceanographic Institute, McGill University, and the Department of
the Environment. ONR provides partial support for research efforts,
and through the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, logistic support
for the field program. NASA, USGS, and NAVOCEANO provide
aircraft and equipment to the remote sensing effort. NOAA
participates with the development of automatic data buoy systems.
The USGS provides communications support.

The major goal of AIDJEX is to find a quantitative relationship
between large-scale stress and strain fields in sea ice. Given such a
relationship and suitable methods of finding the external stresses
from wind and water currents, an estimate of stress in the ice
velocity can be determined. The AIDJEX modeling team is devising a
computer model for a limited portion of the Arctic Basin to assist
them in attaining the program goal.

In addition to the ground data acquisition system, airborne remote
sensing will be conducted over the AIDJEX array with the use of
NASA and Navy fixed-wing aircraft and specially configured
helicopters of the USGS. Imagery of the Beaufort Sea site will also be
obtained by Landsat. These data, combined with the surface data,
will be fed into a central computer system and subsequently used by
the AIDJEX modeling group. This group will have a scale model of
the sea ice for use by the time data from the main experiment are
available.

Cold-weather research is also being conducted by the Navy in the
ice-covered Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas. This effort, designed
to improve understanding of ice dynamics, acoustic propagation,
and related environmental factors, enables development of predic-
tion models. An important part of the program is the evaluation,
development, and application of remote sensing systems to Arctic
environmental measurements.

Prediction of the acoustic character of the ocean is critical to the
Navy because acoustics affect the performance of many weapons
and detection systems used in antisubmarine warfare. During 1974,
interpretation of acoustic volume reverberation data previously
gathered in the Mediterranean was completed, and reports on
various aspects of the program were written by the Navy. A new
data collection and processing technique has enabled volume
scattering strength-versus-depth profiles to be obtained from data
collected with explosive sources and omnidirectional hydroplanes.
A computer prediction program was developed to calculate volume

75

scattering strength based on the swim-bladder sizes of the fish
caught. The results showed that these predictions agree reasonably
well with measured scattering strengths. This is the first time that
biological data have been used to predict acoustic results quan-
titatively with any degree of success.

Data Management

The archiving, handling, and storage of marine environmental
data, including specimens of organisms, is a continuing project; most
"raw" information collected must be screened, processed, sorted, and
put into useful form for easy retrieval so that scientific investigators
can have ready access to what they need when they need it.

With the exception of water-quality data, marine data collected by
Federal agencies, private sources, and other nations are made
available to the general marine-user community through NOAA's
Environmental Data Service (EDS). Water quality data are available
from USGS, EPA and the Department of Health, Education and
Welfare's (HEW's) Public Health Service. The Smithsonian Institu-
tion has management responsibility for biological and geological
specimens.

EDS marine data services and products are available from three
national data centers: the National Oceanographic Data Center, the
Marine Geology and Geophysics Branch of the National Geophysical
and Solar-Terrestrial Data Center, and pertinent files of the National
Climatic Center. In addition, EDS's Center for Experiment Design
and Data Analysis provides data-management services and support
for large-scale international, interdisciplinary research programs,
and also assists in planning such projects to insure that data needs
are met. Under an agreement with the National Academy of
Sciences, EDS also coordinates the international ocean data
management activities of World Data Center-A subcenters.

Last year EDS prepared a report on "Ocean Data Resources" in
response to a request from the Chairman of the Ocean Policy Study
of the U.S. Senate. The report addresses itself primarily to Federal
data-management activities and lists the locations, principal
contacts, and capabilities of Federal facilities with ocean data
programs. Information available on State and regional activities,
academic institutions, and industry was also included. In 1974,
agreements to exchange marine data were initiated by universities
or State agencies in Japan, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Federal
Republic of Germany, Norway, and Canada. Considerable data are
expected from these countries during 1975.

A "one-stop" environmental data and information referral service
was made operational by EDS in 1974. It comprises two complemen-

76

tary, computerized referral systems: ENDEX (Environmental Data
Index) and OASIS (Oceanic and Atmospheric Scientific Information
System). ENDEX provides references to environmental data;
OASIS, to published technical literature.

The Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment
(BOMEX) Permanent Archive was made available from EDS to users
interested in the tropical ocean and atmosphere, BOMEX, a
multiagency pilot experiment in a series of large-scale international
investigations carried out as part of GARP, wasji conducted east of
the island of Barbados in the summer of 1969. Tt^e atmosphere was
probed through intensive measurements of varibus meteorological
parameters — primarily temperature, humidity, ^nd wind from the
surface of the sea up to 6 kilometers; through shipboard and land-
based radar observations; and through aircraft and satellite cloud
photography. Daily ocean soundings down to 1,000 meters further
served to meet the objective of the BOMEX "Core Experiment" to
evaluate sea-air interactions.

Oceanographic and meteorological data gathered by a joint
venture of eight petroleum companies over a 3-year period on major
storms and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico were donated to EDS.
Data on wave forces, heights, and other parameters taken at six
offshore drilling and production platforms along the Louisiana
coastline are also now available to users. These include data on
Hurricane Camille, one of the most destructive storms ever to visit
the Gulf coast. The data on Camille are the most comprehensive
collection of oceanographic and meteorological data available for
such an extreme weather event, and are valuable in hurricane
research and offshore engineering applications.

The Smithsonian Institution's Oceanographic Sorting Center
(SOSC) is a national facility for the acquisition of biological
collections. SOSC began in 1962 as a specimen-processing
laboratory: receiving, sorting, recording, curating, and distributing
marine and freshwater specimens to scientists throughout the
world. In recent years SOSC's capabilities and interests have grown
with the national concern for the environment, particularly the
increasing need for biological data critically needed for the
preparation of environmental-impact statements. Services available
at SOSC now include assistance in the design and implementation of
collection-oriented programs basic to biological monitoring,
baseline studies, data syntheses, distribution of ocean-bottom
photographs, and data analysis.

Members of the Chesapeake Research Consortium (including the
Smithsonian Institution's Office of International and Environmental
Programs, the University of Maryland, and the Virginia Institute of
Marine Science) cooperated with the Baltimore District of COE in an

77

extensive review of the existing social, economic, legal, and
environmental conditions of the Chesapeake Bay. The objective of
this review is the development of a plan to provide COE with the
basic information required to permit the proper management of the
Chesapeake Bay and its environs. To help achieve this objective, the
Consortium recently submitted a report on the ecological concepts
and environmental factors affecting the Chesapeake Bay. It included
summaries of the biology of the most significant Chesapeake Bay
organisms, a general ecological description of Chesapeake Bay
communities, and detailed descriptions of selected communities and
of pertinent water-quality standards and criteria.

Instrumentation

A MARAD program to develop shipboard satellite equipment for
general shipping use is moving into its operational phase. After
several years of testing prototype equipment, the L-band of NASA's
Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) 6, is now undergoing a
year-long test. Shipping companies in the North Atlantic will use
this system, together with a Communications Satellite Corp.
(COMSAT) satellite of the Maritime Satellite System (MARISAT)
in the Pacific, to establish technical procedures for wider use.

NOAA's National Oceanographic Instrumentation Center (NOIC)
continued to provide the marine science community with test and
evaluation data on a variety of oceanographic and related marine
instruments. This past year also saw an increase in the use of NOIC's
three regional calibration centers. Approximately $250,000 were
spent to calibrate instruments at these centers in 1974, as opposed to
$165,000, the previous year. As a result, the data acquired with
instruments calibrated at the centers should have improved quality
for use in both national and international programs.

NBS supported standardization and development of equipment for
use at sea. Among the developments initiated last year was an
incubation chamber for retrieving and studying marine micro-
organisms under conditions of in situ temperature and pressure at
maximum ocean depths. A sampler is being developed and built that
will be released from the ocean surface, will fall to the bottom of the
ocean at depths to 6 miles (ambient pressures to 1,000 atmospheres),
will retrieve a sample of fluid from a prescribed height above the
bottom, and will return while maintaining ambient pressure and
temperature. A transfer device is also being developed, that will
allow small samples to be withdrawn for microbiological analysis
without significant change in temperature and pressure.

The growing number of vessel groundings, many of which have
involved major spills of oil or other dangerous cargo, has led

78

MARAD to initiate a sonar development program. The Antistran-
ding Sonar System will give warning of underwater obstructions
and shoals in a ship's path by use of long-range and highly
directional acoustic beams. The system, designed for unattended
operation, includes transducers for emitting and receiving energy
through the water, digital processing, display, and alarm equipment.
The system is presently undergoing a 1-year test and evaluation
under operating conditions along the east coast of South America.
In fiscal year 1974 MARAD was involved, in conjection with
NOAA, in two projects for the description of the ocean environment.
One was an ocean sampling program to develop a scientific data base
on water quality, in terms of hydrocarbon concentration, and to
determine the impact of shipping on these background concen-
trations. The second was a shipboard observing system providing
for semiautomated collection and reporting of data to improve
predictions of future sea and weather conditions. The goals of this
project are to reduce hull and cargo damage, voyage delays, and
possible pollution.

Data Buoys

February 1974 was the fourth anniversary of the mooring of the
first large automatic-reporting data buoy at a long-term data
collection location by NOAA's Data Buoy Office (NDBO), which has
headquarters at Bay St. Louis, Miss. This buoy, located about 125
nautical miles east of Norfolk, Va., has demonstrated the capability
to remain anchored on station through all kinds of weather and to
report to weather services ashore the information necessary for
ocean environmental monitoring and prediction. Its record at this
deep ocean location has also shown the ability of such buoys to
provide long-term series data.

On the basis of the experience gained from both large and small
buoys, the NDBO has been able within the past year to specify its
detailed requirements for an operational prototype environmental
buoy to support weather monitoring and prediction data needs in the
severe environments of regions such as the Gulf of Alaska. A
competitive contract for the procurement of one such prototype was
let, with the option to procure five additional prototypes after
successful test and evaluation of the first prototype buoy. The first
prototype is scheduled for delivery in the late spring in 1975. This
buoy will be deployed in the Gulf of Alaska by the USCG for 6
months' testing.

In a project involving buoys on the continental shelf, the NDBO
has moored three small data buoys off the west coast of Florida
during each of two data-acquisition experiments. These buoys

79

provided meterological data in support of an NSF-sponsored study
by the University of Miami and other Florida universities.

Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center have completed the
conceptual design for a small expendable ocean data buoy, which
can be dropped from fixed-wing aircraft. This buoy incorporated the
NOAA buoy transmit terminal electronics, which can telemeter data
to the Nimbus F satellite. In a joint project with EPA and USCG,
NOAA will deploy a small buoy in June 1975 to monitor water
quality near dump sites off Ocean City, Md.

Remote Sensing

Until recently, studies of the ocean environment have been
conducted primarily through shipboard measurements and ship-
deployed instrumentation. Satellites now offer us a new tool
whereby we can, for the first time, take a synoptic look at the oceans
to determine sea-surface temperatures, currents, wave heights and
spectra, winds, storm surges, tides, ice, chlorophyll concentrations,
sediment transport, shallow bathymetric features, the shape of the
marine geoid, and possibly even tsunamis and red tides. To
capitalize on this new ability, an Ocean Remote Sensing Laboratory
has been formed within NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and
Meteorological Laboratories at Miami to provide satellite planners
with the specifications required to construct ocean research and
monitoring satellites.

During the conduct of the manned Skylab missions in 1973 and
1974, several oceanography investigations were carried out of
NASA as part of a comprehensive Earth resources study. In these
missions an array of remote sensors constituting the Earth Research
Experiment Package was carried by Skylab. Skylab photographs of
the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico showed the presence of
boundary eddies ranging indiameter from 11 to 31 kilometers. Water
depth measurements to about 15 meters were inferred from
multispectral visible scanner data obtained during a pass over
Puerto Rico. The thermal infrared channel of the scanner provided
information on ocean surface temperature variations off the
northwest coast of Africa, which could be correlated with an
upwelling area. The feasibility of acquiring information on ocean
surface winds from spacecraft altitudes was demonstrated by means
of the microwave radiometer-scatterometer instrument system on
Skylab.

Emphasis is being placed by NASA on the development of active
microwave systems having the potential of acquiring oceanographic
data any time of the day or night, and under near all-weather
conditions. These systems will be used on Seasat A, the first of a

80

class of spacecraft, to be launched during 1978, dedicated to
measurements of ocean surface dynamic parameters on a global
scale.

During the 1974-75 Great Lakes winter navigation season, the
USCG and NOAA's National Weather Service and National
Environmental Satellite Service were participants with NASA in a
field program designed to obtain information on a Great Lakes ice
survey system. This program acquired ice-cover information for use
in the preparation of Great Lakes ice charts for distribution to ships
on the Great Lakes. The USCG provided the aircraft, flightcrew, and
instrument operators. NASA provided the Side-Looking Airborne
Radar (SLAR), lake-ice imaging system, the data handling and
processing system, the airborne data transmission systems, and the
training for the USCG personnel operating the SLAR instruments.
The data were sent to the Ice Navigation Center at Cleveland, where
USCG, National Weather Service, and NASA personnel interpreted
the data and prepared the pictorial and annotated graphic Great
Lakes ice navigation charts.

Imagery from the satellites NOAA 2 and NOAA 3 continues to be
employed in the development of methods for mapping oceanographic
features. An experimental Gulf Stream area thermal-boundary chart
derived from very-high resolution radiometer (VHRR) infrared
imagery and USCG airborne radiometer flights was planned for
operational release in 1975. The National Weather Service, using
USCG communication facilities, is to initiate a Gulf Stream
information service for the public based on this product.

By the use of a particular sequence of the NOAA satellite VHRR
infrared imagery, a large cold eddy was tracked along the edge of the
Sargasso Sea and Gulf Stream in March 1974, enabling a research
vessel to implant a special buoy with minimum time spend in
locating the eddy.

A Navy experiment off the coast of Korea demonstrated the value
of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data in
locating ocean surface thermal features, thereby facilitating optimal
tactical deployment of acoustic sensors.

On May 17, 1974, the prototype of the Geosynchronous
Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) system was launched
by NASA as the Synchronous Meteorological Satellite [SMS Ij. This
satellite is equipped with a visible infrared spin scan radiometer and
a data collection system. Initially the satellite was placed at 45° W
longitude to support GATE from September 23 through November
16, 1974. From its permanent station at 75° W, the full disk imagery
will provide data for a great portion of the Western Atlantic.

NBS is investigating the feasibility of establishing a widely
available, low-cost, time-and-frequency broadcast service from

81

geostationary satellites on the internationally allocated frequency of
400.1 megahertz. The goal of this long-range project is to meet the
increasing demands for higher accuracy, greater coverage, and
increased signal reliability at minimum costs to the Government and
the user. The project may ultimately lead to a system of dissemina-
tion that will replace the NBS's services on WWV and WWVH.

82

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A— FEDERAL OCEAN PROGRAM,
FISCAL YEARS 1974, 1975, and 1976

Appendix A-1— Federal Ocean Program — Budget by
Department and Independent Agency

[In millions of dollars]

Estimated by Fiscal Year

1974

1975

11.2

12.8

12.5
2.9

1976

212.4

227.4

31.9

29.2

213.2

231.1

69.2

66.7

75.6

82.1

106.8

143.6

22.4

24.3

11.6

13.2

1. Department of Defense-Military 219.2

2. Department of Defense-Civil Works 31.8

3. Department of Commerce 189.9

4. National Science Foundation 64.4

5. Department of Transportation 53.7

6. Department of tfie Interior 53.7

7. Environmental Protection Agency 16.9

8. Department of State 12.0

9. Department of Healtfi, Education, and

Welfare 9.3

10. Energy Research and Development Admin-

istration 6.2

11. National Aeronautics and Space Admin

istration 4.9

12. Smitfisonian Institution 2.9

TOTAL 664.9

12.2

20.1

20.0
2.6

782.5

872.5

83

Appendix A-2 — Federal Ocean Program — Budget by
Major Purpose Category

In millinns tif ddllarsl

Estimated by Fiscal Year
1974 1975 1976

1. International Cooperation and Collaboration ... 12.0 11.7 13.3

2. National Security 104.9 93.0 98.9

3. Living Resources 91.0 113.7 127.5

4. Transportation 35.2 37.9 32.5

5. Development and Conservation of the Coastal

Zone 98.7 116.5 125.7

6. Non-Living Resources 25.7 82.9 118.6

7. Oceanographic Research 116.1 124.1 128.9

8. Education 10.1 11.3 11.3

9. Environmental Observation and Prediction 37.1 35.2 39.0

10. Ocean Exploration, Mapping, Charting,

and Geodesy 95.3 99.4 108.9

n. General Purpose Ocean Engineering 25.5 40.9 52.7

12. National Centers and Facilities 13.3 15.9 15.2

TOTAL 664.9 782.5 872.5

84

Appendix A-3— Detail by Subpurpose and Agency

[In millions of dollars]

Estimated by Fiscal Year
1974 1975 1976

1. International Cooperation and Collaboration .... 12.0 11.7 13.3

(a) Marine-related activities of

international organizations 7.8 7.1 8.1

Department of State (7.8) (7.0) (8.0)

National Science Foundation (0.0) (0.1) (0.1)

(b) International fisheries 3.6 4.1 4.7

Department of State

(c) Assistance to developing nations 0.6 0.5 0.5

Agency for International
Development
2. National Security 104.9 93.0 98.9

(a) Defense oriented surveys and

services 25.8 25.7 24.9

Department of Defense — Military

(b) Marine science support for defense

systems 51.6 48.4 51.6

Department of Defense — Military

(c) Ocean engineering for defense

purposes 27.5 18.9 22.4

Department of Defense — Military
3. Living Resources 91.0 113.7 127.5

(a) Fishery resources assessment, develop-
ment and management 45.6 48.9 54.2

Department of Commerce

(b) Technical and economic assistance

to the commercial fishing industry 6.7 7.9 7.9

Department of Commerce

(c) Protection of endangered species,

marine mammals research 2.2 2.4 4.0

Department of Commerce

(d) Health, sanitation, contaminants,

and inspection 6.0

Department of Commerce (10)

Department of Health, Education,

and Welfare (5.0)

(e) Enforcement of fisheries treaties 26.2

Department of Commerce (1-6)

Department of Transportation (24.6)

(f) Use of marine life in biomedical

research 4.3 5.9 6.2

Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare

6.3

7.0

(1.0)

(1.0)

(5.3)

(6.0)

42.3

48.2

(2.2)

(2.1)

40.1)

(46.1)

85

Estimated by Fiscal Year
1974 1975 1976

4. Transportation 35.2 37.9 32.5

(a) Maritime science and technology;
advanced ship engineering develop-
ment 14.9 12.3 9.9

Department of Commerce

(b) Shipping economics and requirements;
improvement in ship operations and

shipping systems 7.6 7.1 7.3

Department of Commerce

(c) Deep water ports/offshore terminal

development 0.3 0.3 0.3

Department of Commerce

(dj Channel and harbor improvement 6.0 6.3 5.9

Department of Defense-Civil

(e) Aids to navigation 2.1 3.9 4.3

Department of Commerce (1.5) (2.3) (2.3)

Department of Transportation (0.6) (1.6) (2.0)

(f) Merchant marine safety; search

and rescue 4.3 7.4 4.8

Department of Transportation
5. Development and Conservation of the
Coastal Zone 98.7 116.5 125.7

(a) Marine pollution abatement and

control 33.2 41.8 47.1

(1) Water quality enhancement
standards and criteria

Department of Defense— Civil (0.5) (0.6) (1.2)

Department of Commerce (0.6) (2.0) (2.2)

Department of the Interior (1.0) (0.7) (0.8)

Environmental Protection Agency (9.6) (14.2) (15.7)

(2) Control and removal of pollutants

Department of Defense— Civil (3.0) (3.1) (2.7)

Department of Transportation (7.0) (7.0) (2.9)

Environmental Protection Agency (1.5) (2.9) (3.3)

(3) Surveillance and regulatory activities

Department of Defense— Civil (2.5) (3.0) (6.0)

Department of Transportation (1.7) (3.0) (7.0)

Environmental Protection Agency (5.8) (5.3) (5.3)

(b) Conservation and recreation 37.5 40.7 46.3

(1) Conservation of marine locales,
gamefish, and wildlife

Department of the Interior (16.7) (18.5) (21.9)

(2) Planning and development of
marine areas for recreation

Department of the Interior (10.9) (12.4) (13.4)

(3) Boating safety

Department of Transportation (0.4) (1.3) (1.6)

(4) Small craft harbor development

Department of Defense— Civil (4.5) (4.0) (3.6)

86

Estimated bv Fiscal Year

1974

1975

1976

(5) Beach and shore stabilization;
hurricane storm surge protection

Department of Defense— Civil (5.0) (4.5) (5.8)

(c) Regional environmental systems research
(Chesapeake and San Francisco Bays, N.Y.
Bight, Great Lakes, Coastal Zone

Management, etc.) 28.0 34.0 32.3

Department of Defense— Civil (9.0) (9.0) (2.7)

Department of Commerce (16.7) (22.6) (27.9)

National Science Foundation (1.6) (1.7) (1.0)

Smithsonian Institution (0.7) (0.7) (0.7)

6. Non-living Resources 25.7 82.9 118.6

(a) Appraisal of minerals, fossil

fuels, sand, and gravel 5.2 15.3 14.3

Department of Defense— Civil (0.1) (0.1) (0.1)

Department of the Interior (5.1) (15.2) (14.2)

(b) DCS environmental assessment,

leasing, and management 14.3 60.5 93.6

Department of the Interior (14.3) (53.9) (86.5)

Department of Commerce (0.0) (6.6) (7.1)

(c) Environmental impact of mining 0.5 1.0 3.9

Deepartment of Commerce

(d) Development and protection of fresh

water supplies 5.7 6.1 6.8

Department of the Interior

7. Oceanographic Research 116.1 124.1 128.9

(a) Energy Research and Development

Administration 5.3 9.4 10.5

(b) Department of Defense— Military 26.7 27.7 31.8

(c) Department of Commerce 20.9 19.5 19.8

(d) Department of Transportation 0.2 0.2 0.2

(e) National Science Foundation 61.4 65.7 65.0

(f) Smithsonian Institution 1.6 1.6 1.6

8. Education 10.1 11.3 11.3

(a) Department of Commerce 5.0 5.8 5.8

(b) Department of Defense — Military 4.1 4.5 4.6

(c) Department of Transportation 0.3 0.3 0.3

(d) National Science Foundation 0.7 0.7 0.6

9. Environmental Observation and Prediction 37.1 35.2 39.0

(a) Data acquisition, processing, and

dissemination 34.2 32.1 35.0

Department of Defense— Military (9.3) (9.9) (9.8)

Department of Defense— Civil (1.2) (1.3) (1.2)

Department of Commerce (16.5) (15.3) (14.8)

Department of Transportation (7.2) (5.6) (9-2)

(b) Model studies and development 2.9 3.1 4.0

Energy Research & Development

Administration (0.3) (0.5) (0.4)

Department of Commerce (2.6) (2.6) (3.6)

87

Estimated by Fiscal Year

1974

1975

1976

63.3

65.5

71.4

(20.1)

(22.8)

(24.3)

(43.2)

(42.7)

(47.1)

15.6

18.5

22.8

(4.5)

(6.9)

(10.3)

(11.1)

(11.6)

(12.5)

16.4

15.4

14.7

(3.6)

(0.0)

(0.0)

(12.8)

(15.4)

(14.7)

25.5

40.9

52.7

10. Ocean Exploration, Mapping, Charting,

and Geodesy 95.3 99.4 108.9

(a) Nautical charts

Department of Commerce

Department of Defense — Military

b) Coastal mapping

Department of Commerce

Department of Defense — Military

(c) Geophysical mapping

Department of Commerce

Department of Defense — Military

1 1. General Purpose Ocean Engineering

(a) Systems development (satellite,
aircraft, and other sensor and

instrument development) 7.5 20.9 26.8

National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (4.9) (12.5) (20.0

Department of Commerce (2.6) (8.4) (6.8

(b) Data buoy systems 8.6 7.5 7 .7

Department of Commerce

(c) Deep ocean technology 7.1 7.6 8.0

Department of Defense — Military

(d) Manned undersea technology 1.0 1.0 1.0

Department of Commerce

(e) Power plant sitings; nuclear power

sources 0.6 0.9 1.1

Energy Research & Development
Administration

(f) Ocean thermal energy conversion

National Science Foundation

Energy Research & Development

Administration

12. National Centers and Facilities

(a) National Oceanographic Data Center ....

Department of Commerce

(b) National Climatic Center

Department of Commerce

(c) Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting

Center 0.3 0.3 0.3

Smithsonian Institution

(d) Mediterranean Marine Sorting Center 0.3 0.3 n.O

Smithsonian Institution

(e) Natiimal (Jceanographic Instrumentation

Center 2.0 2.1 2.3

Department of Commerce

( f ) Polar icebreakers 6.4 7.6 7.0

Department of Transportation

(g) International Ice Patrol 1.0 1.5 1.0

Department of Transportation

0.7

3.0

8.1

(0.7)

(1.0)

(0.0)

(0.0)

(2.0)

(8.1)

13.3

15.9

15.2

3.2

3.5

3.9

0.1

0.6

0.7

88

APPENDIX B— NATIONAL SEA GRANT
PROGRAM

Through grants to colleges and universities, laboratories, and
public and private organizations, NOAA's National Sea Grant
Program supports marine-related research, eduction, and advisory
services. The recipients provide the personnel and facilities, plus
matching funds of 1/3 or more, to carry out projects designed to meet
local and regional as well as national needs. The Sea Grant
institutions — most of them public universities — thus enter into a
partnership with NOAA's Office of Sea Grant at the Federal level.

In the 9 years since the National Sea Grant Program was founded,
eight universities or university groups have been designated as Sea
Grant Colleges, a recognition of their outstanding leadership and
highly effective programs. Seven others have attained the status of
Sea Grant institutions, conducting integrated multidisciplinary
research, education, and advisory programs, Another 11 universities
and institutions are carrying out marine affairs programs designated
as coherent projects.

Some members of the Sea Grant network are in reality consortia of
several separate colleges and universities, pooling their individual
capabilities to create a greater competence for solving marine
problems. For example, the newest Sea Grant College — in New York
State — comprises nine campuses of the State University of New
York, as well as Cornell University. One coherent project, the
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, is an amalgam of four
academic institutions in Mississippi and six in Alabama. In two
large areas, thePacific and NewEngland, Sea Grant marine advisory
programs in several States have joined in associations to better serve
their regions' needs.

The Sea Grant program not only brings together colleges and
universities, it crosses departmental lines within the participating
institutions to build multidisciplinary teams for solving marine
problems and passing the solutions on to Government agencies,
industry, and the general public. When necessary a wide range of

89

specialists — sociologists, lawyers, economists, engineers,
oceanographers, biologists, botanists, zoologists, and marine
scientists — can be assembled to mount research efforts contributing
to the development, effective use, and prudent management of
marine resources.

To identify and respond to local and regional needs or oppor-
tunities, members of the Sea Grant network seek the active
involvement and support of State and local governments, marine
businesses and industries, and the general public. Their planning is
assisted by advisory councils, committees, and information flowing
back through marine advisory services. Research and development
performed by Sea Grant institutions has provided the basis for at
least 10 new industries or components of industries and resulted in
countless industrial applications or benefits.

The marine resources that Sea Grant works to understand, use,
and manage lie on the shorelines of the United States, Great Lakes,
and island territories; in coastal lands; bays, estuaries, tidal rivers,
and offshore waters; and on the sea floor and subsoil of the
continental shelf out to a depth of 200 meters or as far as natural
resources can be exploited.

MARINE RESOURCES

Sea-Grant-sponsored aquaculture programs for the cultivation of
finfish, shellfish, and seaweeds are coordinated with those of
NOAA's NMFS. For the most part, the studies examine the
interrelated physical, chemical, biological, nutritional, pathological,
medical, engineering, processing, and environmental components of
aquaculture systems, as well as the associated legal, socioeconomic,
and marketing problems or benefits.

Forms of aquaculture being investigated with Sea Grant support
range in technical complexity from stocking waters with hatchery or
nursery-raised young, through shore-based cultivation systems that
take in and expel water, to completely closed systems in which water
is recirculated.

To obtain the maximum benefit from ocean fishing resources. Sea
Grant researchers are developing new techniques and equipment for
assessing and harvesting fish stocks; for combatting diseases, fungi,
and parasites that affect marine life; and for improving the quality,
increasing the shelf life, and preventing deterioration in appearance
and taste of fresh, canned, and frozen seafoods.

U.S. consumers exhibit strong preferences for certain finfish,
shellfish, and crustaceans, such as salmon, oysters, and lobsters.
The favored species become overharvested and grow scarce and
expensive. Meanwhile, other species— perhaps because they are

90

simply unfamiliar to the average American — are the "wallflowers"
of the sea. They are either underharvested or caught mainly for
export to countries where they are considered delicacies. Nearly all
Sea Grant institutions are engaged in programs related to assessing,
harvesting, processing, and marketing these neglected species.

Traditionally, seafood processing companies have separated the
most desirable and easily obtainable parts of fish, shellfish, and
crustaceans, discarding remaining portions in nearby waters. Now,
increasingly strict water-pollution regulations are forcing
processors to find other, more costly, methods of disposal or to seek
markets for the waste products. Sea Grant scientists are developing
methods of recovering greater quantities of fish flesh for human
consumption. Inexpensive, protein-rich food products are being
created by extending minced fish food with vegetables and cereal
products. Other investigators are processing former wastes into
foods for fish, poultry, and animals.

In addition to being sources of protein and of industrially useful
materials, the living creatures and plants of the sea contain an
astonishing variety of substances that act against diseases of
animals and humans. Sea Grant scientists at several institutions are
attempting to isolate these substances, test their pharmaceutical
value, and identify their chemical structure so that they may be
produced and marketed by commercial firms.

Sea Grant institutions are also exploring and evaluating offshore
mineral resources [chapter III), developing new techniques for
recovering them, and examining the environmental effects, as well
as the social, economic, and legal aspects of exploiting marine
mineral deposits.

THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Since the National Sea Grant Program began, its member insti-
tutions have been assembling environmental, social, economic, and
legal information on their States' coastal regions — examining the
impacts of man's activities there and the factors affecting manage-
ment of the coastal zone.

Under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, administered by
NOAA's OCZM, States are responsible for developing and carrying
out comprehensive plans for managing their coastal zones. The
Office of Sea Grant works closely with OCZM, as members of the
Sea Grant network do with the responsible State agencies, in helping
to achieve the act's objectives.

Virtually all Sea Grant institutions have assisted State agencies in
developing coastal zone management plans; conducting needed
scientific, economic, or demographic studies; compiling local. State,

91

and Federal laws pertaining to the coastal region; and encoruaging
community and citizen involvement in the planning process.

Effective coastal zone management depends on understanding the
physical and biological processes in coastal waters and land areas,
and on developing techniques for predicting and controlling
pollution and shore erosion. Sea Grant scientists are contributing to
this understanding and development through their studies of
ecosystems, pollution, coastal engineering, and environmental
modeling.

Education

The Sea Grant Program recognizes that a skilled cadre of marine
scientists and technicians is essential to the development, use, and
management of marine resources. Education, thus, is an integral part
of the National Sea Grant Program, and a college or university must
offer marine science courses to qualify for institutional support.

Educational projects of Sea Grant institutions cover a broad range:
developing graduate and undergraduate courses and curricula in
marine fields, training marine technicians, and preparing
educational materials on the marine environment for students from
kindergarten through high school.

When the National Sea Grant Program began, marine industries
were expected to grow rapidly, producing a large demand for trained
manpower. Sea Grant stimulated the creation of graduate programs
in ocean engineering, law, economics, and marine affairs, supported
the improvement of existing programs in marine disciplines and
instituted or augmented a number of marine-technician training
programs. However, marine industries have not grown enough in
recent years to absorb all the qualified graduates of the academic and
technician training programs. Educational efforts have, therefore,
been reduced until a new need for expansion becomes apparent. In
many cases. States or counties have taken over support of these
programs. Sea Grant now is supporting the development of 71
college-level courses at 24 institutions.

Marine Advisory Services

The people-to-people emphasis of Sea Grant is strongest in its
marine advisory services. Experienced agents, usually from Sea
Grant institutions, aid marine industries and businesses, as well as
State and local governments, in developing and using marine
resources wisely. Marine-advisory services, marine research
programs, and educational activities, constitute the three essential
elements of a Sea Grant college or institutional program.

Sea Grant advisory services have existed since the program began

92

in 1966. In 1972, NOAA established an agencywideMarine Advisory
Service, administered by the Office of Sea Grant, linking the NOAA
components and the marine advisory services already operating in
coastal States. OtherFederal agencies with marine-related responsi-
bilities and expertise cooperate with the service, adding to the body
of knowledge that can be drawn upon in assisting and solving local
marine problems, large or small.

Agents of the marine advisory service are ever-present figures
along the coasts, talking with operators of fishing boats, ports,
marinas, seafood processing plants, and power facilities, as well as
with coastal planners. In solving local problems, the agents bring to
bear not only their own expertise derived from experience but also
the results of university and Government research and development
programs. In this way, new technology is transferred quickly and
efficiently into practical use by the marine community.

Sometimes an agent may encounter a problem to which there is no
known solution. Here the vital feedback aspect of the marine
advisory program comes into play. The newly expressed need is
reported and flows back through the system to the university,
NOAA, or other Government agencies, shaping the course of future
research and service programs.

About half of the advisory effort involves commercial and
recreational fishing and the seafood industry. Coastal zone manage-
ment, boating, port operation, and marine science education are also
areas of significant public interest and marine advisory service
involvement.

Advisory service techniques to bring scientific and technical
information to users include workshops, short courses,
demonstrations, and the release of information through newsletters,
news media, and nontechnical publications. Nationally, several
hundred workshops are held each year with attendance ranging from
small numbers to a hundred or more persons. Newsletters and
publications reach several thousand persons in each coastal State.

FUTURE

For the future, the National Sea Grant Program's most important
goal is to extend its network, benefits, and services to all coastal and
Great Lakes States and to U.S. island territories.

The NOAA Marine Advisory Service hopes to expand its network
also, most immediately to New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Some of the newer and smaller advisory services will be strengthen-
ed, and agents specializing in coastal zone management, marine
mining, aquaculture, and marine transportation will be added to the
system.

93

Present and future studies will explore possible avenues for
expanding the Sea Grant concept to promote technical exchanges
with interested foreign nations, exchanges that would benefit both
the United States and the other participating countries. AnotherSea
Grant goal is to support a series of innovative projects directed
toward solving urgent regional and national problems. Such projects
could be performed by industry or by members of the Sea Grant
network as adjuncts to their regular programs.

Major efforts, the National Sea Grant Program is considering for
support in future years include

(1) Cooperative programs with industry to develop new techni-
ques for aquaculture of Malaysian prawns and American lobsters
and to conduct pilot-scale tests in privately owned facilities

[2] Design of processes and equipment for treating solid waste
and liquid effluents of seafood processing at sea and ashore, and for
recovering useful products from the wastes

(3) Development of new low-cost breakwaters for protecting
beaches and coastal and offshore structures

(4) Continued assistance, through Sea Grant institutions, to the
development of State coastal zone and estuarine management plans,
and in solving such specific local problems as powerplant siting

(5) Development of the training programs needed to produce
engineers and technicians skilled in dealing with energy-related
environmental protection problems, including operating offshore
energy facilities and cleaning up oil pollution

Table B-1 lists the Sea Grants. Table B-2 lists the expenditures by
topic, and Table B-3 lists them by institution and State.

Table B-1.— Sea Grants

Number nf grants

Type of grant

Project grants

Coherent

Institutional

TOTAL

FY 1974
(actual)

FY 1975
(estimate)

25
14
19

58

25
10

21

56

94

Table B-2. — Expenditures by Major Topic and Fiscal Year

[thousands of dollars]

FY 1974 FY 1975 FY 1976

Topic (actual) (estimated) (estimate)

Marine resources development 5.018

Marine socioeconomic and legal research . . 910

Marine technology research and development 2,942

Marine environmental research 3,384

Marine education and training 1,217

Marine advisory services 3,569

Program management 1,721

5,924

3,524

1,210

1,400

2,718

4,842

3,488

4,600

1,341

1,397

4,526

4,500

2,499

2,411

TOTAL 18,761 21,706 22,674

Table B-3. — Sea Grant Expenditures by State and
Institution for Fiscal Year 1975

[thousands of dollars)

State Institution Amount

Alaska University of Alaska 575

California California Institute of Technology 105

Humboldt State University 150

University of California 58

University of California, San Diego 1,661

University of Southern California 485

Stanford University 100

Connecticut University of Connecticut 40

Delaware University of Delaware 685

Florida State University System of Florida 937

University of Miami 516

Georgia University of Georgia 507

Hawaii Oceanic Foundation 68

University of Hawaii 1,334

Louisiana Louisiana State University 750

Maine Maine Department of Marine Resources 75

University of Maine 340

95

State Institution Amount

Maryland University of Maryland 239

Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of Technology 811

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 432

Michigan University of Michigan 804

Minnesota University of Minnesota 35

Mississippi Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium 495

New Hampshire University of New Hampshire 538

New York Columbia University 377

New York Zoological Society 95
State University of New York and Cornell

University 1,136

North Carolina University of North Carolina 535

Oklahoma University of Oklahoma 90

Oregon Oregon State University 1,150

Packfic Marine Fisheries Commission 67

Rhode Island University of Rhode Island 1,175

South Carolina Marine Resources Center 371

Texas Texas A&M University 1,424

Virginia Virginia Institute (jf Marine Science 374

Virginia Polytechnic Institute 40

Washington University of Washington 1,429

Wisconsin University of Wisconsin 1,160

District of American Fisheries Society 10

Columbia National Fisheries Institute 16
Society of Naval Architects and Marine

Engineers 24

Guam University of Guam 125

American Samoa (^)ll(!ge of Ameiican Samoa 48

Trust territories Marine Resources [Division 20
of the Pacific

%

APPENDIX C— STATUS OF THE FEDERALLY
SUPPORTED FLEET

Table C-1 summarizes Federal fleet size and funding over a4-year
period. Overall, the fleet will have declined in size by eight ships
from fiscal years 1973 through 1976, significant loses being
sustained by the Navy in particular, and the academic fleet and the
USCG fleet, to a lesser extent. The actual count will drop from 85 to
n ships in operation. During this same period, funding to support
the Federal fleet will have increased $16.4 million, or an average of
6.8 percent per year. This rate of increase in support dollars has been
insufficient to match the rapidly inflating costs of ship operations.
Three-fold increases in fuel and overhaul costs have been particular-
ly notable contributors to these rising costs over the past 2 years and
to the resultant decline in number of ships in operation.

The fleet support picture has, nonetheless, improved substantially
over the projections made in the 1974 Federal Ocean Program. At
that time it was expected that the fiscal year 1975 fleet would decline
to 71 ships and that funding would be no more than about $85.9
million. The most significant change affecting those earlier projec-
tions occurred in the NOAA fleet. Three temporarily out of service
(TOS) ships, MilJer Freeman, Discoverer, and SuvvQyov, were
reactivated during fiscal year 1975, by means of a special energy-
related appropriation to NOAA. The reactivation of these ships was
specifically authorized for their use in environmental surveys
related to offshore resource exploration. In addition, two TOS
fisheries ships, X^e\a\N(\ve II and Cromwell, were also brought back
into service in 1974 and 1975; Kelez, which had been on loan to
USGS, was restored to service in the NOAA fleet.

The count of Navy ships will decline from 16 to 11 over the period
reported here. Navy does, however, plan to replace one ship now
permanently out of service (POS) because of poor material
condition, Michelson, with a converted ship, Canada Mail. This ship
will be ready for use on deep-ocean surveys in the Atlantic in fiscal
year 1977. By the end of fiscal 1976 two Navy ships, Wilkes and
Harkness, will be in TOS status, reducing, temporarily, the total

97

count to 10. These will be returned to service when sufficient funds
are available. A new USCG ship, Polar Star, will enter service during
"interim fiscal year 1976," restoring the count of USCG ships to 7.

Support for the 30 ships of the academic fleet may fall short of the
projected $21.6 million needed for full operation in fiscal year 76.
This is likely to result in short term layups (3 to 6 months) of several
major ships.

The count of ships employed by the USGS has been modified
retroactively to include a small vessel not previously counted,
Polaris. This report also includes, for the first time, several small
vessels employed by ERDA in marine programs.

As noted last year, the term "permanently out of service" (POS) in
designation of operational status means that a ship has been
removed from the roster of Federal-agency-supported ships, even
though it may continue to operate under other auspices.

98

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103

APPENDIX D— A SELECTION OF LAWS
AFFECTING OCEAN ACTIVITIES; 93rd
CONGRESS

P.L. 93-242 Offshore Shrimp Fisheries Act of 1973— January 2, 1974
(H.R. 8529)

This act implements the 1972 United States-Brazil shrimp-fishing
agreement by establishing a permit system for a specified number of
U.S. shrimp-fishing vessels to operate in Brazilian waters and
penalties for violation of the terms of the agreement.

P.L. 93-248 Intervention on the High Seas Act— February 5, 1974 (S.
1070]

This act implements the International Convention Relating to
Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties,
1969. In the event of an actual or potential marine casualty that
threatens the U.S. coastline with pollution by oil, the Secretary of
Transportation is authorized to take measures on the high seas, in
accordance with the convention, to mitigate, prevent, or eliminate
that danger.

P.L. 93-254 Amendment to the Marine Protection, Research, and
Sanctuaries Act of 1972 - March 22, 1974 (H.R. 5450]

This act amends theMarineProtection, Research, and Sanctuaries
Act of 1972 to make the legislation fully consistent with the
provisions of the 1972 Convention on the Prevention of Marine
Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter.
P.L. 93-322 Special Energy Research and Development Act of 1974—
June 30, 1974 (H.R. 14434)

This act appropriated funds for energy research and development
activities for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1975. NOAA was
authorized an appropriation of $6.64 million to reactivate, equip, and
operate three oceanographic research vessels for the purpose of
conducting environmental assessments of coastal areas proposed for
possible oil and gas development.

104

P.L. 93-339 Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Act Amendment— July 10,
1974 (H.R. 14291]

This act extends the scheme of international enforcement for the
conservation regulations of the International Commission for the
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF] to the region off the mid-
Atlantic coast of the United States from Long Island to Cape
Hatteras. In addition, the act requires payment for travel expenses
and a per diem allowance, incident to attendance at meetings of the
ICNAF, for not more than five members of the industry advisory
committee.

P.L. 93-362 Anadromous Fish Conservation Act— July 30, 1974 (H.R.
11295)

This act extends the authority for the existing program. However,
the Federal share for multistage projects was increased to 66 2/3
percent, and the funding authorization for the act was increased to
$20 million.

P.L. 93-380 Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Amendments— August 21, 1974 (H.R. 69)

Among other things, this act provides that a State educational
agency can apply either directly or through local educational
agencies for a grant for programs and projects (including the
acquisition of equipment and, where necessary, the construction of
school facilities) that are designed to meet the special educational
needs of migratory children of migratory agricultural workers or of
migratory fishermen.

P.L. 93-438 Energy Reorganization Act of 1974— October 11, 1974
(H.R. 11510)

This act abolished the AEC, transferring its authority to ERDA
and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), created by the
legislation. Solar-energy functions called for under the "Solar
Energy Research Development and Demonstration Act of 1974" (P.L.
93-473] become a part of ERDA.

P.L. 93-473 Solar Energy Research, Development, and Demonstra-
tion Act of 1974 (S. 3234)

This act establishes a Federal program to speed the development
and commercial use of advanced solar-energy technologies. It
provides for support of research on specific projects such as use of
solar energy as electricity.

105

P.L. 93-577Federal NonnuclearNationalResearch andDevelopment
Energy Policy Act— December 31, 1974 (S. 1283)

This legislation provides funding to the nonnuclear portion of
ERDA over a 10-year period, emphasizing energy conservation,
environmental protection, and development of renewable energy
resources.

P.L. 93-612 Amendment to the Coastal Zone Management Act of
1972— January 2, 1975 (H.R. 16215)

In recognition of special State needs in view of prospective
offshore petroleum-development activity, the act increases the
amount of funds available for program-development grants to the
States from $9 to $12 million in fiscal year 1975. The act also extends
the authorization for the estuarine sanctuary program to fiscal year
1977 to conform to the other titles of the Coastal Zone Management
Act and provides two needed technical amendments correcting
problems created by percentage limitations on grants to the States.

P.L. 93-627 Deepwater Port Act of 1974— January 3, 1975 (H.R.
10701)

This act authorizes, among other things, a Federal licensing and
regulatory program for construction and operation of deep-water
ports beyond U.S. territorial waters with specific provision being
made for protecting the marine and coastal environment to prevent
or minimize adverse impacts from such ports. The Secretary of
Transportation, in consultation with NOAA and other Federal
agencies (under certain provisions), will administer the act.

In addition to the above legislation, the Senate passed the
following resolution:

S. Res. 222 National Ocean Policy Study— February 19, 1974

This resolution authorizes the Senate Commerce Committee to
undertake a comprehensive analysis of national ocean policy and
Federal ocean programs. Without specific time limitation, the study
will be involved in a broad range of ocean issues, such as ocean
energy development, fisheries, coastal zone land and water use
management, ocean pollution, beach access and protection,
transportation. Federal organization and budgets, ocean minerals,
and oceanic education and recreation.

The efforts of the National Ocean Policy Study will be geared to
action, both in generating new legislation and in influencing

106

executive branch decisions. This will be accomplished with special
reports on specific subjects, accompanied by proposed legislation, if
appropriate. Other publications will be issued by the study group,
and they will be timed to be effective in the policy formulation
process within the Congress.

107

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1977 0-226-817