Knowledge of the deep ocean floor; continental shelves and margins is basic to many present and future uses of the sea. Such uses include mineral extraction, navigation of surface and subsurface vehicles, construction of structures on the sea bottom and along the margin, and exploitation of living resources of the shelf and of the water column. Uses of the ocean are directly impinged upon by technological changes resulting from research efforts. Applied science is nowhere more visible than in current development of offshore petroleum sources, development of new fisheries and speculation over possibilities for wealth awaiting mankind on the sea floor. Trained scientists have become important to political decision-makers as a resource. As a result of this political calculus, oceanographers find themselves defending their freedom to conduct fundamental research in large portions of the world\u27s oceans and marginal seas
