A report to the President and the Congress by the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere - Fifth Annual Report

This Report is intended as the beginning of an action process. The legislation establishing NACOA requires the Secretary of Commerce to prepare a response on behalf of the Federal agencies to accompany the Report as it is forwarded to the President and the Congress. NACOA is fortunate in having comment on its Annual Reports mandated. The arrangement stimulates an exchange on findings and recommendations and provides a perspective for action which neither document alone do. Some topics appear in a NACOA Report for the first time (Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration; Air Pollution Research and Development; Weather and Air Safety; Diving Safety). Sime have been touched on in previous Annual Reports (Policy and Planning for Marine Affairs; Energy from Offshore Sources; Defense Oceanography; Climate Change; Weather Modification). The Chapter on Sea Grant is a brief account of a special report to be published later this year. The Committee has come to be called on more frequently than before for testimony and for advice and finds more occasion to offer advice on its own volition. NACOA normally meets once a month during the year to be briefed on a host of subjects bearing on marine and atmospheric affairs and to prepare for this Annual Report. In addition, it forms ad hoc panels, which develop specific subjects in greater depth than can be done in plenary sessions, for subsequent discussion and action by the parent Committee. This work, where appropriate, forms the basis for chapters in these reports. During this past year, several important marine issues arose which required NACOA to comment prior to this Annual Report. One such problem is the tragic possibility that GLOMAR EXPLORER, a unique ocean engineering instrument, may be scrapped. A second was the relation of the developing National Fisheries Plan to the significant fisheries legislation extending jurisdiction in U.S. coastal waters oout to 200 miles. NACOA will be following with great interest and full attention the ways in which the 200-mile extended fisheries jurisdiction legislation is put into practice and how it influences the well-being of the United States coastal fisheries. We will report briefly on the NACOA actions undertaken on these two items, among others, at the end of this Report.