HC Deb 10 April 1962 vol 657 c117W
Mr. Wainwright

asked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty what work is being undertaken by his Department in connection with research on, and mapping of, the ocean bed.

Mr. C. Ian Orr-Ewing

For the past ten years H.M. Survey Ships, fitted with deep echo-sounding equipment capable of sounding the deepest known ocean depths, have been carrying out a systematic programme of ocean sounding. The Hydrographer of the Navy also receives on a world-wide basis a steadily increasing volume of sounding data obtained by surveying and research ships of other nations.

Research on the ocean bed is carried out by the National Institute of Oceanography and by some British universities. Opportunity for British scientists to operate seaborne scientific instruments is made available from time to time in H.M. Survey Ships, in R.R.S. "Discovery II" operated by the National Institute of Oceanography, and in the R.V. "Sarsia" of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.