A report to the President and the Congress - Second Annual Report

In this, its second Annual Report, the National Advisory Committe on Oceans and Atmospher (NACOA) comments on a number of fast-moving if somewhat disputatious topics: resource management organization, energy, the coastal zone, atmospheric affairs, and fisheries. NACOA was chartered by P.L. 92-125 to report, both to the President and to the Congress, on national marine and atmospheric affairs, and to the Secretary of Commerce with respect to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administation (NOAA). It reports this year, as it did last, by treating a series of priority topics where it can do so with assurance. The intent is to deal with the leading edges of marine and atmospheric affairs rather than to review the whole array of programs. And, once again, there were several fundamental and pressing issues which NACOA wanted to include but did not, largely because preparation could not be adequate. The theme of this report - which we treat in more detail in the Introduction - is the need for improved management of programs in both the oceans and the atmosphere to counter the dispersive tendencies which seem to be occurring in the shadow of jurisdictional frictions and in the absence of resource leadership. While NACOA believes there is no single way to accomplish this, it does offer suggestions and recommendations, both general and specific, by which improvemenets could take place.