U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

50–670 CC u WASHINGTON : 1998

HEARING ON OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEMS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES CONSERVATION,

WILDLIFE AND OCEANS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JULY 30, 1998, WASHINGTON, DC

Serial No. 105–106

Printed for the use of the Committee on Resources

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house

or

Committee address: http://www.house.gov/resources
(II)

COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES

DON YOUNG, Alaska, Chairman

W.J. (BILLY) TAUZIN, Louisiana

JAMES V. HANSEN, Utah

JIM SAXTON, New Jersey

ELTON GALLEGLY, California

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee

JOEL HEFLEY, Colorado

JOHN T. DOOLITTLE, California

WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland

KEN CALVERT, California

RICHARD W. POMBO, California

BARBARA CUBIN, Wyoming

HELEN CHENOWETH, Idaho

LINDA SMITH, Washington

GEORGE P. RADANOVICH, California

WALTER B. JONES, JR., North Carolina

WILLIAM M. (MAC) THORNBERRY, Texas

JOHN SHADEGG, Arizona

JOHN E. ENSIGN, Nevada

ROBERT F. SMITH, Oregon

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

KEVIN BRADY, Texas

JOHN PETERSON, Pennsylvania

RICK HILL, Montana

BOB SCHAFFER, Colorado

JIM GIBBONS, Nevada

MICHAEL D. CRAPO, Idaho

GEORGE MILLER, California

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts

NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia

BRUCE F. VENTO, Minnesota

DALE E. KILDEE, Michigan

PETER A. DEFAZIO, Oregon

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American

Samoa

NEIL ABERCROMBIE, Hawaii

SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas

OWEN B. PICKETT, Virginia

FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey

CALVIN M. DOOLEY, California

CARLOS A. ROMERO-BARCELO ́ , Puerto

Rico

MAURICE D. HINCHEY, New York

ROBERT A. UNDERWOOD, Guam

SAM FARR, California

PATRICK J. KENNEDY, Rhode Island

ADAM SMITH, Washington

WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts

CHRIS JOHN, Louisiana

DONNA CHRISTIAN-GREEN, Virgin Islands

RON KIND, Wisconsin

LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas

LLOYD A. JONES, Chief of Staff

ELIZABETH MEGGINSON, Chief Counsel

CHRISTINE KENNEDY, Chief Clerk/Administrator

JOHN LAWRENCE, Democratic Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES CONSERVATION, WILDLIFE AND OCEANS

JIM SAXTON, New Jersey, Chairman

W.J. (BILLY) TAUZIN, Louisiana

WAYNE T. GILCHREST, Maryland

WALTER B. JONES, JR., North Carolina

JOHN PETERSON, Pennsylvania

MICHAEL D. CRAPO, Idaho

FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey

NEIL ABERCROMBIE, Hawaii

SOLOMON P. ORTIZ, Texas

SAM FARR, California

PATRICK J. KENNEDY, Rhode Island

HARRY BURROUGHS, Staff Director

JOHN RAYFIELD, Legislative Staff

CHRIS MANN, Democratic Legislative Staff
(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held July 30, 1998 ..................................................................................... 1

Statement of Members:

Delahunt, Hon. William D., a Representative in Congress from the State

of Massachusetts ........................................................................................... 14

Pallone, Hon. Frank, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the State

of New Jersey, prepared statement of ......................................................... 2

Saxton, Hon. Jim, a Representative in Congress from the State of New

Jersey ............................................................................................................. 1

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 2

Young, Hon. Don, a Representative in Congress from the State of Alaska,

prepared statement of ................................................................................... 2

Statement of Witnesses:

Baker, D. James, Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, Department of Commerce ........................................................................................ 6

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 40

Colwell, Rita, Director, National Science Foundation ................................... 9

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 48

Gaffney, Rear Admiral Paul G., II, Chief of Naval Research, United

States Navy ................................................................................................... 10

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 51

Gagosian, Robert, Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ........... 22

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 62

Grassle, J. Frederick, Director, Institute of Marine and Coastal Science ... 25

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 70

Kennel, Charles, Director, Scripps Institute of Oceanography ..................... 20

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 52

Watkins, James, President, Consortium for Oceanographic Research and

Education ....................................................................................................... 26

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 59
(1)

HEARING ON OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEMS

THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1998

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES CONSERVATION, WILDLIFE AND OCEANS, COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES, Washington, DC.

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m. in room

1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Jim Saxton (chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.

STATEMENT OF HON. JIM SAXTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN

CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Mr. SAXTON. The Subcommittee will come to order.

I want to thank everyone for the extraordinary effort in preparation for this morning’s hearing. And it is primarily because of that

extraordinary effort that we are proceeding with the hearing at a

rather difficult time. It is at this hour the funeral of one of the officers is being held over in Virginia, so we debated in our mind

about whether we should move forward. But because of the distances that some of you traveled, and because of the great effort

that went into this morning’s hearing, in preparation for it that is,

we decided to proceed.

The Subcommittee on Fisheries, Conservation, Wildlife and

Oceans is meeting today to conduct an oversight hearing on our nation’s ocean observing systems. The importance of the ocean is

being recognized more each day for the role in the global climate

and environment and the potential uses of the biological and mineral resources it harbors.

The United States needs to evaluate its marine observation systems and determine if the facilities and the technology in our current arsenal are sufficient to meet the requirements to understand,

conserve, and use resources in the marine environment.

As some of you are aware, the Oceans Act of 1998, which was

also interesting this week, establishes a commission to evaluate the

state of our oceans research and technology and the laws that govern marine issues. This bill was approved by the House Resources

Committee yesterday, and we expect it to move quickly through the

House. The input and interest of some of today’s witnesses has

proved invaluable over these past months, and I thank you for the

input and the expert information that you were able to provide us.

However, today’s hearing was called to gain insight into the status of the Nation’s oceans observing systems and determining the

needs that exist for a further understanding of the marine ecosystem. By hearing testimony from both the administration and the

scientific community, we hope to better comprehend the direction
2

that policy needs to be taken in order to develop more sound policies when it comes to the ocean and its inhabitants.

We look forward to hearing from each of you this morning and

hearing your perspective on a variety of current observing systems.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Saxton follows:]

STATEMENT OF HON. JIM SAXTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE

OF NEW JERSEY

Good morning. The Subcommittee is meeting today to discuss the status of the

nation’s ocean observing systems.

The importance of the ocean is being recognized more each day for its role in the

global climate and environment and the potential uses of the biological and mineral

resources it harbors. The United States needs to evaluate its marine observation

systems and determine if the facilities and technology in our current arsenal are

sufficient to meet our requirements to understand, conserve and use the resources

in the marine environment.

As some of you are aware, the Oceans Act of 1998 establishes a commission to

evaluate the state of our oceans, research and technology, and the laws that govern

marine issues. This bill was approved by the House Resources Committee yesterday,

and we expect it to move quickly through the House. The input and interest of some

of today’s witnesses has proved invaluable over these past months, and I thank you

for your expertise.

However, today’s hearing was called to gain insight into the status of the nation’s

ocean observing systems and determining the needs that exist to further our understanding of the marine ecosystem. By hearing testimony from both the Administration and the scientific community, I hope to better comprehend the direction that

policy needs to be taken in order to develop more sound policies, when it comes to

the ocean and its inhabitants.

I am looking forward to each of your testimony and hearing your perspective on

a variety of current observing systems.

Mr. SAXTON. As I mentioned earlier, because of other events that

are taking place at this time, I expect that I will be here alone for

most of the hearing; that is, without other members. So I ask your

understanding. And I ask unanimous consent that all Subcommittee members be permitted to include their opening statements in the record. And, obviously, that will occur.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Young follows:]

STATEMENT OF HON. DON YOUNG, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE

OF ALASKA

I would like to compliment Chairman Saxton for holding this oversight hearing.

In light of the fact that the Oceans Bill was reported from the Resource Committee

yesterday, this hearing is very timely.

The science community’s needs to study the widely unknown ocean must be established in conjunction with the Ocean Commission that we hope to pass. By coordinating the efforts of the scientific community and the elected officials both here and

outside Washington, a more concerted effort can be developed.

Without widespread understanding of the oceans, many problems, ranging from

fisheries conservation to those of pollution, will go either completely unaddressed or

inadequately resolved. Therefore, through the testimony we will hear today, I am

optimistic that we will gain some perspectives from the Administration and also

some valuable insights into the needs and hopes of the scientific community.

I look forward to hearing from this extraordinary group of witnesses that have

been assembled today.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Pallone follows:]

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM

THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for holding this hearing today on such an important and timely issue,

the oceans. Our oceans are critically understudied and while they cover roughly

three fourths of the planet, observations have lagged far behind those on land.
3

If anyone doubts the importance of ocean observations, they need only to look as

far as our most recent El Nin ́ o predictions. These predictions, based on models and

ocean observations, gave state and local managers the information they needed to

take precautionary measures before disaster struck, saving millions of dollars and

countless lives.

There are yet other ocean observations that have yielded tremendous benefits.

The Ocean Drilling Program has produced sediment cores to study long-term climate variability. Submersible observations have discovered hydrothermal vents

where entire communities of unique marine organisms flourish. These organisms

which live without sunlight, and under intense heat and pressure, show tremendous

promise in the cutting-edge field of biotechnology.

Past ocean observations have also yielded exciting medical benefits. Today over

half of all new cancer drug discoveries are coming from marine organisms. Further

research in this area could lead to even further breakthroughs.

At the National Ocean Conference in Monterey, California, the President announced several initiatives to explore, restore and protect our ocean resources. I am

particularly interested in two initiatives announced: Exploring the Last U.S. Frontier and Monitoring Climate and Global Warming.

I look forward to hearing from today’s witnesses on the current state of our ocean

observations, what areas need additional research, and what partnerships are taking place to meet these needs.

Mr. SAXTON. We are going to hear something a little unusual this

morning. One of our witnesses, Dr. Gagosian, the director of Woods

Hole Oceanographic Institute, will be showing us a film on some

recent undersea research taken by the scientists there. It will take

about 5 minutes. Immediately following the film we will introduce

the first panel.

I would like to introduce the film. Are we all set? We have two

monitors. So it looks like we are all set. You might want to dim

the lights a bit, and we will go ahead and watch this video.

Dr. GAGOSIAN. Mr. Chairman, I have been asked today to speak

to the issue of the deep sea. For this video presentation, I will

present how we explore the deep sea floor 2 to 3 miles below the

surface of our blue planet and what we see down there. During my

testimony, I will talk about why we need to explore the deep sea

and what technical improvements we need to produce the best

science.

But first, what tools do we need to explore this blue planet? How

do we explore our inner space where buoyancy is important and

gravity is not? We use human-occupied vehicles. HOVs, like Alvin,

with its support vessel Atlantis, Alvin is part of the National Deep

Submergence Facility located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Alvin

holds three people, two scientists and a pilot, and can dive to a

depth of 14,000 feet. It averages roughly 180 dives a year. It can

explore 86 percent of the ocean floor.

The National Deep Submergence Facility also has remotely operated vehicles and autonomous vehicles. You are all familiar with

the remote vehicle Jason. It was used to explore and discover the

Titanic. Jason has a depth capacity of 20,000 feet, can operate 20

hours a day, and is tethered to the ship with a fiberoptic cable. It

works by a team approach both on the ship and on land. It is

linked by satellite to a global audience.

And there are autonomous vehicles, such as the autonomous

benthic explorer, Abe. It is untethered. It drops off the side of the

ship, goes through the water column, goes down to the bottom of

the ocean, goes into a cradle, and goes to sleep, wakes up on command, and runs around the bottom of the ocean sensing different

events that occur down there.
4

Another example is REMUS, the remote environmental monitoring unit. There are several in operation. This is a cartoon, if you

will, an animation of a futuristic robotic colony on the sea floor.

What you are seeing here in the black sections are the areas covered by side scan sonar used to map the sea floor topography. The

use of these robotic colonies clearly is for mine warfare and monitoring earthquakes, as a couple of examples, as shown here; also

to monitor waste dump sites. You can also see from this particular

animation the autonomous benthic explorer involved in this surveying the bottom of the ocean in this futuristic effort.

Now let’s talk about other advances in technology. Cameras. The

Titanic was discovered in 1986 by Woods Hole Deep Submergence

Laboratory, headed by Bob Ballard. This is a low-light video, highaltitude imagery of Titanic. Remember, Titanic is 21⁄2 miles below

the ocean floor water.

In the early 1990’s, broadcast quality three-chip cameras came

along, and as you can see, there is extraordinary clarity with respect to the 1986 video. There are a lot of particles in the water.

And so these new camera systems have allowed scientists to look

at things and ask questions they were not able to do just 5 years

earlier. So due to progression in wider area and angle views, clarity

and resolution, and higher light power, a scientist can do, as I mentioned, things they could not even dream of doing 5 to 10 years earlier.

An excellent example of this is the telemotor. This is linkage to

the rudder of Titanic. The steering wheel is attached to it. Note the

clarity of the bolts. I would like to remind everyone in the room

that this is 21⁄2 miles below the ocean surface. It is not in my office.

One of my favorite pictures is this cup which is found in the debris field of Titanic. If you look carefully, you will not only see the

white star, but you will be able to read ‘‘White Star Line.’’

Another example of the use of this technology is in a forensic survey that was just completed of a bulk cargo carrier named the

Derbyshire, 964-foot, 2,000-ton iron ore and bulk carrier which

sank off Okinawa in a typhoon in 1980 in 14,000 feet of water.

This, by the way, is HDTV of a half-inch cable from that sunken

carrier. Forty-four lives were lost. The question is why and how did

it sink?

One hundred thirty-seven thousand digital still images and 500

hours of color and HDTV video imagery were taken, and as you can

see, it is really quite extraordinary, the detail. This is a fracture

in the hatch cover at, again, 14,000 feet. This is a plastic tie wrap.

Those lines are 1 millimeter apart.

The synthesis of the imagery, and you will see in a moment the

bow section, has allowed the people that were working on this

project to understand why and how it sank. Now, that is the technology.

Let me take you to a place where few people have been before,

where the heat of the earth drives this engine creating a 40,000-

mile-long volcanic mountain chain below the sea surface at an average depth of 21⁄2 miles, the longest mountain chain on earth,

moonless mountains. These are areas where hot lava is entering

the ocean from deep below in the earth’s interior creating underwater mountains. You probably think this is a volcano on earth,
5

but actually it isn’t. It is 21⁄2 miles below the ocean’s surface. It is

at the underwater volcanoes where new sea floors are made. It is

the most hostile environment on earth.

This is the world of hydrothermal vents. They were discovered

just 20 years ago, where sea water circulates deep below the ocean

floor through cracks in the crust from previous earthquakes, recycling and heating the water to 700 degrees Fahrenheit as it rises

to the surface. The pressure is 5,000 pounds per square inch. It is

a world of metal sulfides, iron, zinc, copper, and silver, as they condense in the cold water creating chimneys that grow several stories

high at the rate of a foot a week.

It is also the world where bacteria is the basis of life. And what

you are seeing here is thick bacterial mat, not snow. It is also

where chemical reactions, not light, provide the energy for life. It

is a world of incredible diversity and density, where over 300 species have been found, two-thirds of which have never been seen before, with an overall growth rate as high as the most fertile rain

forest in the world.

It is a world of unusual animals, like these tube worms that you

are seeing here, which can grow up to 14 feet. They grow at a rate

of an inch a week. They are the fastest growing invertebrates on

earth. These organisms coexisted with the dinosaurs. Vent organism fossils have been found in 400-million-year-old ore deposits.

This never-dreamed-of oasis of life has created a whole new

thinking of the origin of life on this planet and the possibility of

life on others. The red tips, by the way, I might add, are hemoglobin.

This is another kind of worm. This is an Alvinella worm, named

after Alvin. The tip of this worm is in 34 degree Fahrenheit water,

and the tail is in 175 degree Fahrenheit water, and it is only 2 feet

long, the highest known temperature in which an animal has survived. And a 140-degree Fahrenheit gradient over a 2-foot body

length is extraordinary.

Higher up in the food chain, as you can see, are crabs.

The red light, by the way, is a laser from Alvin. It is used to maneuver the submarine.

So these cameras are indeed our microscopes under the sea. And

this extraordinary picture of a shrimp actually is a great example

of that. Shrimp, I might add, on the midocean ridge of the Atlantic

are teeming in their masses as they feed on bacteria. There are literally thousands of them. The light on their backs is thought to be

coming from light-seeking sensors which attract them to the vent.

There are golden-colored mussels, as well. They do not feed on

the bacteria like the shrimp, but the bacteria reside inside them,

producing the mussels’ food source. They grow as large as a 12-inch

dinner plate.

So, only 20 vent sites have been explored on this 40,000-mile

mountain chain. Many more have been hypothesized. Imagine the

discoveries to come. This is the earth at night, and it shows pretty

clearly how much more we have to explore on the planet ocean.

Thank you.

Mr. SAXTON. Doctor, thank you very much. That was impressive,

to say the least, and we thank you.
6

Doctor, we understand that you are going to be here with us and

be part of the second panel. And, so, we look forward to chatting

with you further.

Permit we to welcome Mr. Farr aboard, my ocean partner. I am

his ocean partner. One way or the other. Anyway, we work closely

together and have been, for the last several weeks, seing a lot of

each other.

Let me just introduce the first panel at this time. No stranger

to the members of the Committee, Dr. Jim Baker, Under Secretary

of Oceans and Atmosphere, Department of Commerce; Dr. Rita

Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation; and Rear Admiral Paul Gaffney II, Chief of Naval Research, United States

Navy.

We remind each of you that, for purposes of keeping things

going, we operate here under 5-minute rule. Obviously, your entire

written statement will be included in the record, but if you would

try to summarize it in the allotted 5 minutes, we would be most

appreciative.

Dr. Baker, why do not you begin.

STATEMENT OF D. JAMES BAKER, UNDER SECRETARY FOR

OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Dr. BAKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to

testify on ocean observations and related activities and also to

highlight some of the details from the National Ocean Conference.

Mr. Chairman, I know you had planned to attend the National

Ocean Conference. I am sorry your schedule would not allow you

to be there, but I would like to, in my short testimony here, summarize some of the results that came out of that important meeting.

But let me say first that this wonderful film that Bob Gagosian

just showed is a perfect example of the kind of partnership that we

have between the Federal Government, the oceanographic institutions, and the academic community that work so well.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and you will also be hearing from Rutgers,

are three examples where Navy, NOAA, NSF and other agencies

all work together to make new things happen; and it could not happen without that long-term partnership that has worked very well.

Let me start by saying that the support of this committee has

been critical to the successful forecast of El Nin ́ o this past year.

Our array of buoys in the tropical Pacific called the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean array, the TAO array, provide the key data for researchers and NOAA forecasters to provide the first-ever forecast

for El Nin ́ o.

This forecast has brought important economic returns to the

country and has introduced ocean and climate science to homes

across all regions of the United States. Just one example, benefits

to the Nation’s agricultural industry alone of the forecast are estimated to be somewhere between $240 and $266 million. That is

just for one forecast.

But despite recent advances, our understanding of the surface

and interior ocean, the variability of the ocean, and the interaction
7

with the atmosphere and of the subsurface processes and resources

is just at the beginning.

Recognizing this fact, President Clinton and Vice President Gore,

at the recent National Ocean Conference, launched several major

initiatives for the exploration, restoration, and protection of America’s ocean resources. These measures will provide new scientific

insight into the ocean, open new opportunities for jobs and economic growth, and also preserve our oceans for all time. We are proposing an additional $224 million through 2002 to

support these efforts beginning in fiscal year 2000. The initiatives

particularly relevant to ocean observations are exploring the last

U.S. frontier and monitoring climate and global warming.

Understanding our ocean observation programs will require some

discussion of the tools and processes used for observation. The tools

include submersibles, profiling floats, buoys, state-of-the-art satellites. They are all in a process of almost constant evolution as our

abilities to understand the oceans deepen and our needs for scientific data expand.

In addition to these tools, NOAA has created various partnerships with various agencies, oceanographic institutions, universities, and other countries to share the responsibilities of resources

that ocean observations require. And I am pleased that we have

been able to start a new joint institute at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, an important new activity for us.

The El Nin ́ o observing system is focused on the tropical Pacific

Ocean, but scientists recognize a climate variability results from

interactions among different oceanic regions. So improved predictability requires the integration of observing systems over all of the

oceans which need to be combined to create critical climate information for all of the U.S. and foreign climates.

We need to have a system, Mr. Chairman, in the ocean that is

as good as the atmospheric system that we have today. Thus, in

1998, the International Year of the Ocean, all of the agencies are

committed to participating in the building of a global ocean observing system that is essential to improving the basis for our climate

forecasting. This observing system will include what we have today

provided by NOAA, Navy, the National Science Foundation, and

other agencies, plus new profiling autonomous tide gauge circulation explorer floats. These are floats that float in the midwater.

They go up and down. They are profiling. They are independent of

any connections, so they are autonomous and they float with the

currents. They promise a very cost-effective approach for largescale ocean measurements.

At the conference in Monterey, the President proposed an additional $12 million to expand the array of these floats in the north

Pacific and north Atlantic. This new array will provide the backbone of the sustained global ocean observations needed to improve

climate forecast skill.

In addition to these sea surface and satellite-based platforms,

NOAA has developed a suite of undersea ocean observation systems. Submersible and hydroacoustic technologies supported by all

the agencies have brought scientists to a new frontier in fields of

underwater research. Recent advances have allowed us access to

thousands of square miles of virtually unexplored sea floor re-
8

sources. With strong congressional support, NOAA has maintained

sea floor observatories and is providing significant new support for

various efforts, including the Aquarius, the long-term environmental observatory off New Jersey, and the VENTS program in

sites along the Pacific coast.

The costs of ocean observation programs are high, and NOAA is

not fully able to fully underwrite the costs alone. Therefore, we are

working in cooperation with our sister agencies and other nations

on oceanographic research and satellite observations.

Mr. Chairman, as we move to a more global ocean observation

system, we must learn enough about the ocean to design such a

system. The World Ocean Circulation Experiment was a good start.

Now scientists have proposed the next steps, which NOAA is

pleased to help with. The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment, called the GODAE, will create a means to provide up-to-theminute analysis of ocean conditions. We are committed to supporting this effort through our Oceans Observation Program.

Part of this will also be the Climate Variability and Predictability Experiment, CLIVAR, the leading international scientific

program. These will the basis for the next step, and NOAA will be

a partner. A critical limiting factor for improved climate and

weather predictions is our limitation on computing power. We need

better computers, and we will be working to make those happen.

Mr. Chairman, let me conclude with a note about living marine

resources, a special interest of yours. More efficient management of

our Nation’s living resources would result from better information

about the current status of biological and physical components of

the marine environment. We need to have better fisheries stock assessment information to manage fisheries.

On average, our fishery vessels, as you know, are more than 34

years old. We are looking for ways to replace the capability of the

vessels. We have a team that has been doing that. Admiral Craig

Dormand recently reviewed NOAA’s plan and strongly supported

our need for acoustically quiet vessels. The report supports construction of four dedicated fishery research vessels. In Monterey,

the President proposed $194 million to do the design and construction of those new vessels.

Mr. Chairman, your timing for holding this hearing, after a very

powerful El Nin ́ o and before what we are forecasting to be a La

Nin ́ a event, the flip side of El Nin ́ o, underscores how vital congressional leadership will be in ensuring the long-term sustained investment that science requires for ocean observations.

The CLIVAR experiment, the GODAE experiment are critical to

these; and we are prepared to be a partner. The President has indicated his support for ocean observations. We are prepared to undertake his specific proposals.

I commit to you that NOAA, through our laboratories and our

academic partners, will work with our sister Federal agencies represented here today, we will work closely with NASA and DoD,

with satellites, and we will be looking closely to work with the private sector in collecting, disseminating, and applying ocean data.

We will work with the Congress and the administration to implement these plans.

Thank you very much.
9

Mr. SAXTON. Dr. Baker, thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Baker may be found at end of

hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. Dr. Colwell.

STATEMENT OF RITA COLWELL, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL

SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Dr. COLWELL. Chairman Saxton, as the newly confirmed NSF director, I am still sort of wet behind the ears, so I particularly appreciate the opportunity to testify today on this very important

topic of ocean monitoring and assessment, and in particular the

substantial, very fundamental role that the National Science Foundation plays in the Nation’s oceanographic monitoring and assessment capabilities.

In fact, this hearing speaks very directly to one of the most exciting themes that has emerged from the past decade of ocean

sciences research, and that is the complexity and variability of the

oceans, so dramatically demonstrated in the video Dr. Gagosian

just showed us.

Frequently, we find significant physical, chemical, and biological

variations on very small spatial scales, as small as a half a mile.

It is clearly impossible to monitor the entire global ocean or even

coastal waters with minute spatial resolution. For that reason, it

is important to understand the underlying processes sufficiently

well to be able to interpret them. This allows researchers to make

a small number of key observations that will very reliably tell us

over time how the system works. The research supported by NSF

helps us determine what measurements will best characterize

changes in the ocean and, more importantly, how many measurements are required and where they should be located.

A good illustration, I think, is the NSF-funded Tropical Ocean

Global Atmosphere, the TOGA program. As its name implies, this

research program is focused on the physical processes occurring in

the tropical ocean and the atmosphere. TOGA enabled us to recognize the forces that underlie the El Nin ́ o phenomenon, which in

turn led to the design and deployment of the existing El Nin ́ o

Southern Oscillation, the ENSO, observing system.

The question is, how can we possibly monitor such a vast and

complex system as the oceans? A helpful way to characterize the

scientific requirements is to consider three classes of monitoring

systems. One is that we need sustained monitoring that provides

data to detect the subtle changes that occur over a period of a decade or so in the short term. These measurements can provide early

warning of changes in the earth’s system.

Then along with that, we need selected long-term observations

that allow us to predict changes in the oceans and weather systems

and to be able to alleviate negative impacts. For instance, this

year’s El Nin ́ o activity is a very good example of the long-term observation that allowed us to make predictions.

And finally, we need measurements, observations, and experiments to help us understand the physical, chemical, and biological

processes that were responsible for the changes. An associated

challenge is tracking what is going on in the miles and miles of

ocean that exist between sensors. This is an area in which we have
10

seen remarkable innovation over the past 5 years. That innovation

was primarily fueled by the needs of the World Ocean Circulation

Experiment, WOCE.

At this moment there are about 500 robotic vehicles distributed

over thousands of square miles of the north Atlantic oceans. These

drift along with the ocean currents about a half a mile below the

ocean’s surface; and about every 2 weeks, each one of these small

instruments pops up and rises to the surface collecting data on

temperature and salinity as it moves up to the surface; and then,

via satellite, these data are transmitted, as well as the position of

these instruments, to investigators on shore. After being on the

surface for about a day, they are sent back down to a profiling

depth of about half a mile. And this cycle goes on month after

month after month.

So these examples, in conclusion, demonstrate how technology is

changing the way we do oceanography. Permanent sea floor observatories, new optical and acoustical imaging methods, long-term

moorings, deep-diving manned submersibles, satellite communications, robotic vehicles, these are all vehicles for discovery that NSF

supports.

I will conclude by saying we are in a time of very rich opportunities for research in oceanography. We have seen, in a very rapid

series of events, hurricanes, droughts, floods, destruction of coral

reefs, coastal erosion, climate change, El Nin ́ os, fisheries decline

and in some cases simply collapsing, and also human health effects, an area of personal interest. We can now use ocean monitoring to predict cholera epidemics. So there is a very close linkage

between what we study in the oceans and the welfare of human

populations. These are all phenomena that are affected by, and in

some cases controlled by, the oceans.

The United States oceanographic investigators are world leaders.

We do not lack talent, ideas, or plans, and given the adequate resources, the future is spectacular for discovery and understanding.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for the opportunity to share

with you and the members of the Committee the exciting research

that is being supported by NSF. The testimony will be, of course,

in the record; and I would be very pleased to answer any questions

you might have. Thank you.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you very much, Dr. Colwell. It does not

sound like you are wet behind the ears. Thank you for being here.

That was great testimony.

Dr COLWELL. My pleasure.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Colwell may be found at end of

hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. Admiral Gaffney may proceed.

STATEMENT OF REAR ADMIRAL PAUL G. GAFFNEY, II, CHIEF

OF NAVAL RESEARCH, UNITED STATES NAVY

Admiral GAFFNEY. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Farr.

Thank you for the opportunity for me to appear before you this

morning to talk about a topic that is very dear to me, our oceans.

I would like to begin by showing you a graphic.

This graphic represents our planet. The green part is the land,

and the blue part is the water, a little more than two-thirds of our
11

planet. It is about 197 million square miles, this whole disk. If you

can see that little white square on there, that is the amount of the

water part of our planet that has been imaged or completely explored since we have been alive on this planet, or since anyone has

been alive on this planet. It is about 5 percent, a little bit more

than that.

Again relative to the same size, this is the moon. It represents

all sides, top, bottom, backside, and front side of the moon. It is

equivalent to about 11 percent of the ocean, twice as much as we

have surveyed of our ocean. It has been completely imaged, 100

percent, front side, back side, top, and bottom.

I will leave this for your grandchildren.

Mr. SAXTON. We would like to share that with some of the folks

that were here with us yesterday.

Admiral GAFFNEY. We have, in fact, characterized 100 percent of

the ocean. We have used satellite altimetry to characterize it at a

resolution of about 15 kilometers. But 100 percent of the moon has

been characterized at 100 times better resolution than we have

characterized our entire planet. This concerns me, and I believe we

should do something about it.

The Navy has long considered the study and exploration of the

oceans to be a required competency. We must do it. We do not do

it because we love it. We do not do it because it is interesting. We

do not do it because we have a charter. We do love it. It is interesting. We do not have a charter. But we do it because it is the

foundation that provides information required for every single

Navy and Marine Corps operation that you can imagine.

Over the past 50 years, we have invested billions of dollars in research, instrument and technique development, global ocean surveys, data archiving, and predictive capabilities. The results of

these efforts are seen in many ocean monitoring tools and platforms used around the world in civil and military oceanography.

For example, SWATH bathymetry, SWATH sonar, laser line scan

optical scanners, sensors, the global positioning system, acoustic

thermometry, long-range acoustic monitoring, deep stable moorings, some of the people in this room and the institutions that they

represent have developed these for us, to name just a few.

In the future, and I will make a commitment right now for the

future, for the Navy, we are committed to an ocean science and

technology program that is robust. It is a national responsibility,

we think, that the Navy has. It is a core capability the Navy must

foster. We will focus on understanding the processes of the ocean

and develop the tools to better understand those processes.

We will continue to rely on ships and manned submersibles.

Frankly, I am quite worried about that part of our repertoire of

tools at this point. But long-term ocean monitoring and assessment

need other tools as well, companion tools, tools like those that come

from our investment in autonomous systems that can either be

moored or drifting or independently moving, small unmanned systems, as Bob Gagosian showed you in his videotape that started

this session off.

We are currently working on networks of inexpensive autonomous underwater vehicles through a program called the Autonomous Ocean Sampling Network. Also on the horizon are new re-
12

mote sensing instruments, such at the Naval Earth Map Observer

Satellite, or NEMO, which will provide hyperspectral images when

it is launched in the year 2000.

NEMO is interesting because it is a partnership between the

Navy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and industry, each

sharing in the cost of about a $120 million effort, the government

coming up with about $60 million of that and industry coming up

with about $60 million.

It is interesting, because like most big oceanographic programs,

no one group or agency can support all the cost alone for oceanographic research, ship operations, surveying, and modeling that

needs to be done on a global scale to address the issue that we are

testifying about today. We formed partnerships with agencies and

institutions like those represented on this panel today and through

programs such as the National Ocean Partnership Program, which

was actually born out of a set of hearings that this Subcommittee

participated in a couple years ago. NOPP, the National Ocean Partnership Program, is unique in that agencies that are working together can actually create critical mass to address our neglected

ocean.

The Navy is proud to have taken an organizational and financial

lead in the early parts of the NOPP, but our partners are strong

partners in NOAA, and our vice chairman seated right here at the

table, Dr. Jim Baker, NSF, NASA and six other agencies are stepping up to the plate with us.

At the National Ocean Conference, I mentioned a notion that we

should begin the millennium with a focused exploration and mapping effort, 100 percent coverage of one important area near our

United States, a necessary baseline, a precursor to long-term monitoring.

I hope to see the National Ocean Partnership Program agenda,

and its leadership council on their agenda, a discussion about the

coordination of Federal ocean monitoring efforts, how they can be

comprehensively sustained, and how we can comprehensively baseline them before we start.

It will take decades to understand the majority of our water

planet as well as we understand the moon today, but we need to

begin.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here. My formal testimony

is submitted for the record, sir; and I am looking forward to answering any questions you may have.

Mr. SAXTON. Admiral, thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Admiral Gaffney may be found at

end of hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. Since you referred to the National Ocean Partnership Act in the latter part of your testimony, let’s just begin by exploring that some.

The National Ocean Partnership Act, obviously, was established

pursuant to legislation that passed the Congress in 1995. I am just

curious as to generally how you view it in terms of how successful

it has been, how has funding worked out, how much was requested

by the partnership, how much was added by Congress.
13

Just in general, can you fill us in on the details, what your level

of resourcing is, what you need, and how well you think things are

going?

Admiral GAFFNEY. Yes, sir.

Well, we started out, of course, with initial—some initial Navy

money and money added by the Congress that was not in the President’s budget for the first couple of years. The Navy has increased

its contribution from $5 million to $10 million, and we intend to

have, for as long as we can imagine, $10 million or so in the President’s budget as our contribution to the National Ocean Partnership Program.

We have a different budget development process in the other

agencies, and we are able to, I would say, react faster, not to be

pejorative, but to act faster to the opportunity of the partnership

act. So we got our money in, and the other agencies are adding

money out of whole cloth, if you will, not separate line items yet.

But we note that there are requests in from several agencies to add

to that program.

We have had great cooperation among the several agencies.

While it has been principally Navy money or Navy money plusedup by the Congress but put in the Navy line item, all of the agencies have worked to select the programs. It would be hard to imagine any oceanographic program that would not be Navy-relevant.

So we are very happy to spend our money in a deliberate way, debating it with our fellow agencies.

Good results have come out in education, in data exchange and

ocean monitoring, and a great dialogue has gone on that I have not

seen in my 25 years in this town involved with oceanography.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you.

Dr. Baker, Dr. Colwell, would any of you like to comment?

Dr. BAKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think this has been a wonderful example of pulling together the

agencies and having an interaction also with the academic community. And the role of Admiral Watkins has been absolutely critical

in making this happen, and I would like to thank him for that, because this gives us a formal structure to work from, the partnership program, which has started in the Navy. And the Navy has

done a very good job of accepting the leadership there.

Other agencies, like NOAA have proposed funding for the partnership program and, hopefully, will be able to make that happen.

And the National Ocean Leadership Council, which involves a variety of different members, I think, is another piece of this proposal

or this current structure which I think can be very useful in helping advance the ocean’s agenda.

Dr. COLWELL. I would add that the National Science Foundation

is pleased to be one of the Federal partners in the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, in NOPP. In fact, the NSF is contributing half a million dollars to its funding the awards that came

out of the NOPP interagency program announcement.

And in addition, NSF has contributed about $200,000 toward the

NOPP Educational Drifter program and $100,000 to the Ocean

Science Bowl, which is a nationwide high school science competition.
14

NOPP is really a very critical component of bringing resources

together. We are very pleased to be active in it, and I also commend Admiral Watkins for his leadership.

Thank you.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you.

Before I ask my next question, let me just observe that Mr.

Delahunt has joined us. And I am supposed to ask unanimous consent that he be permitted to sit. So asked.

The gentleman from Massachusetts, Cape Cod and Martha’s

Vineyard and Nantucket, to us sailors known as the land of fog.

Mr. DELAHUNT. And Woods Hole.

Mr. SAXTON. And Woods Hole. And incidentally, if you have

never tried to sail past Woods Hole in the fog, you need to try that.

Also, I might note that Karen Steuer is now working for Mr.

Delahunt, and, also, I understand there is a close association with

the Woods Hole folks.

Mr. DELAHUNT. May I, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. SAXTON. Please.

STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

Mr. DELAHUNT. I was just having this chat with Mr. Farr.

Mr. SAXTON. That is ‘‘Farr.’’

Mr. DELAHUNT. Thank you for the translation, Mr. Chairman.

And he said, ‘‘Boy, this is real exciting stuff.’’

Let me just compliment Mr. Farr, who also had an opportunity

to visit Woods Hole, for the work that he is doing in terms of these

issues. And particularly I want to compliment Chairman Saxton,

who has really exhibited great leadership in this area. And it is

really exciting to look out and to see representatives from disparate

agencies.

It is exhilarating to really have a chance to visit WHOI to see

what is occurring down there. I am sorry I missed the testimony

of Bob Gagosian. But this really is the future. And, you know, I

think oftentimes the public is skeptical about what is happening

here in Washington, DC, but if they only could participate in hearings such as this, they would see that we are on the verge of doing

some wonderful things.

I want to thank you, Mr. Saxton, and you, Representative Farr,

for really leading this effort in the U.S. Congress.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you for being with us this morning.

Let me just ask one further question. Then I will pass the baton

over to Mr. Farr.

The Administration recently promised $12 million through fiscal

year 2002 to assist in the exploration of the ocean. Included in this

proposal were expansion to two shallow-water observing programs,

to the development of two deep-sea observing programs, and the

development of two submersibles.

How will these funds be spent? What will the research goals be?

And which agencies will be involved? Of course, I am particularly

interested as to whether or not LEO–15 will be included.

Dr. BAKER. Mr. Chairman, let me answer that question.

That money was aimed at NOAA to expand our ocean observation capabilities, something that we have been trying to do for a
15

long time and, as you know, have been urged by Congress to expand our activities centered on the NURP program and also, hopefully, trying to look at some other areas also.

We will be, in fact, coming forward, hopefully, in the year 2000

budget with an initiative that reflects what the President has identified there. And, yes, all of the above are included at the moment.

So we expect to see a substantial expansion of what we have had

in the past, and each of those items is something that we have

committed to, and we are working the process at the moment.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you very much.

Mr. Farr.

Mr. FARR. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I am excited about where we are going, because I think, sitting

here in late July, that when this Committee convened at the beginning of the year, we were starting to speculate, the Year of the

Ocean, we are the Committee with the ocean responsibility, perhaps we can make something of the year. And looking back, it is

not even over yet, and look at what the Year of the Ocean has

done. It has got the best-seller in the New York Times with A Perfect Storm as a book, and the Academy Award went to Titanic, and

Dr. Baker produced the El Nin ́ o. So we have been able to accomplish something in this year and at least get our people to think

about us.

Monterey was the kind of the bringing together of the clan. Yesterday we passed in this room the Oceans Act, and I think that

there is a momentum gained. And then the excitement is to see

that momentum gained and a kind of interest in the issue. And I

think Admiral Gaffney pointed out how much we have to do by

that graph there.

I guess this is where I am concerned as a politician is how you

keep that momentum going. The President pledged some new

money in Monterey. I would like to talk to Dr. Baker about that.

But I think it is more than just the bill has not yet been passed

off the floor. It has not gone through the conference committee, and

the President has not signed it, and we only have a few days left

of really much work to get done here before it all kind of breaks

apart to go into elections.

So the concern I have that I want to ask the panel about is really

how do we take this momentum and really build it up? Because

what we have learned in the process is that we have an awful lot

of governments out there, governments and government, trying to

do ocean work. There is a need for better coordination. There is

scarce dollars when you compare it to even the amount of money

that NSF puts into ocean research versus others, it is still a small

amount. The Navy, I do not think, has put as much resources

where I think Admiral Gaffney says they need to be.

So how are we going to keep this momentum going so that we

can start changing our funding priorities in this country to really

match the challenge that each of you bring? And the questions I

have about it are to want to know how NOAA, with the $224 million that the President pledged, how is that going to be used to revitalize not only the structure within, but to better coordinate visits

and buy equipment that is necessary to do the research? Have you

focused on that specifically?
16

Dr. BAKER. Congressman Farr, thank you for that question, and

thanks for your leadership in the oceans arena and for the National Oceans Conference. I think it was a pivotal activity for getting commitment from a variety of stakeholders, including the Administration.

The largest amount of money that was identified at the National Ocean Conference was $194 million to build sustainable fisheries,

and the largest part of that, about 75 percent, is aimed at providing for us new, very capable fishery vessels that would replace

the more than 34-year-old vessels which we currently have in

NOAA so that we can improve our stock assessment and fishery research, a key element of building sustainable fisheries. The acoustically quiet ships are going to be a very important part of that.

That was an important new commitment. We have been trying

for several years now to get the Administration to commit to new

seagoing capabilities for NOAA. This will be the central piece of

that. We will be doing this design. We are doing design in conjunction with experts from the Navy, with experts from abroad, so that

we have the best possible activity there. The fisheries vessels were

the biggest piece of the commitment.

We also have a commitment for new ocean technology to expand

our deep sea exploration for ocean monitoring, for navigational

charts. As you remember, there were nine specific initiatives that

were identified, and I think we got a good start in each of these.

But I think also, very importantly, at the conference, the President

committed to bringing together all of the Cabinet agencies that are

responsible for oceans issues to report back to him in 1 year about

how we were cooperating to keep the momentum going. And I

think that, together with the passage of the Oceans Act, will provide us the context to work in the Federal Government and the private sector to keep this momentum going on the ocean. So I think

we have a very good start here.

Mr. FARR. Dr. Colwell, at NSF, a part of your testimony was sort

of all the needs that need to be looked at. Do you see a shifting

of priorities to address those needs and the funding at NSF?

Dr. COLWELL. I think there is a need at NSF to be more heavily

investing in environmental research overall, and certainly the

oceans are a major part of it. But let me point out that I think

what is happening in recent years is that there is a clear set of evidence that demonstrates the relationship of human health to the

health of the oceans and to ocean events. That is, by being able to

measure sea surface temperature, to correlate sea surface height,

temperature, nutrients, we are better able to show a relationship,

for example, to toxic algal blooms, to microorganisms that may

cause human disease.

And so, as we improve our ability to develop predictive capacity

for demonstrating this very close linkage to human health, as well

as economics, through fisheries and so forth, I think a more dramatic case can be made for increased resources; and NSF certainly

supports expanded research.

Mr. FARR. Admiral Gaffney, thank you for your leadership in

being able to host this conference at the Naval Postgraduate School

at Monterey. I was really proud and pleased that that was the

venue.
17

However, I have to tell you that I am a little concerned because

the language was inserted in the bill that we passed yesterday that

excludes all military operations, I think it says specifically all Navy

military operations and training measures, from consideration by

the Ocean Commission. It specifically moves the Navy out. And I

am wondering if you think that that is going to hinder the ability

for the Commission and the Navy to move toward the things that

you said need to be addressed?

Admiral GAFFNEY. No, sir, I do not think it will.

In the research area and in the collection of oceanographic information in an operational sense, we are so tightly coupled, these

agencies, the agencies at this table and others, and we will stay

coupled just to survive so we can leverage each others’ dollars and

do what we need to do, that we will by necessity continue to work

regardless of what happens. So I think we will do just fine.

We have other mechanisms. The people seated in the back four

rows here that actually get their hands dirty with oceanography

talk to one another all the time without any help from the people

seated at this table, and they will continue to do that by the best

people performing and bringing the right critical mass of money together to get things done.

Dr. COLWELL. May I add just a comment to that which you pointed out very succinctly, Mr. Farr; that there is insufficient funding?

Let me note that NSF now provides more than two-thirds of all

the Federal resource support for the Nation’s universities and

ocean research institutions. Clearly, an increase in funding is necessary.

Mr. FARR. I appreciate that. But of your total funding, of your

total pie, of outflow, what is the percentage of ocean compared

to——

Dr. COLWELL. I will have to get back to you on that, I am not

sure.

Mr. FARR. When you compare it to all the ocean funding. Because

this is the problem. We have always said we have committed much

more. We argued the space station last night. Space station has

more funding than all of the program.

Dr. COLWELL. I think as a Nation we need a greater commitment.

Mr. FARR. So what you are talking today is we need a space station for the ocean.

Dr. COLWELL. I would agree, in general.

[Information submitted by Dr. Colwell follows:] —————

FUNDING FOR OCEAN SCIENCES RESEARCH

The National Science Foundation provides most of its support for ocean sciences

research through the Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) of the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO). In FY 1997, OCE’s budges totaled $200 million, approximately 8

percent of the Research and Related Activities (R&RA) Account. Total ocean

sciences support for the Foundation, including funding through the Office of Polar

Programs and the Directorate for Biological Sciences, equaled approximately 10 percent of the R&RA Account in FY 1997.

Dr. BAKER. Mr. Farr, I am not sure I would agree with that exact

statement, that we need a space station for the ocean, although I
18

agree with the amount of funding. Maybe that is the point you are

making.

Mr. FARR. Well, the point is exactly, you caught it, the emphasis

and the concern and the passion for putting money into research

in the ocean. We can do it, I think, more cleverly. I think that the

space station has international collaboration, which is something

else we support.

My last question, back to Admiral Gaffney, does the Navy support the exemption that was in the oceans bill?

Admiral GAFFNEY. I believe that the Navy does. I am not an expert on that, I will have to admit, sir, but it is my understanding

that the Navy does support the exemption that is in the legislation.

But I am not sure it is an issue for this particular group of people

in this room. We will work together. We will take a leadership role.

If I can go back to your question about funding, I will give you

a little personal example. I raised my right hand and went to the

Naval Academy in 1964, and basic research, Navy basic research,

which started this whole basic research out, by the way, at the end

of World War II, was $2.2 billion in today’s terms. Basic and applied research, I am sorry. Basic and applied research. Today, it is

.8 billion in today’s terms.

Now, in the past few years, despite that decline, we have given

most favored nation status to the ocean sciences, ocean and related

sciences; ocean remote sensing, marine meteorology, that all work

together. But if we don’t get some growth, if we don’t turn up that

curve, as has been proposed by Secretary Dalton, to get that turned

around the other way, then we are going to be in worse trouble

than we are today. And I think that we will also start to

disincentivize people from getting into the research sciences as a

career in the Nation.

Mr. FARR. One of things I thought was very interesting, in talking to Dr. Ballard about the Jason Project, which the Navy supports, in fact, its largest Federal funding comes from the Navy, but

Dr. Ballard said that the majority of the money that Jason raises

comes from American corporations. And I asked why would they

put so much money, these are millions and millions of dollars that

are put into this project, and he said that some of the businesses

in this country really understand the need to have ocean research.

We need the science, we need the technicians, and they are not

being produced because there is not enough ground interest. And

the Jason Project certainly has been able to bring that around.

I have been always accused of being a big spender. If I can be

a big spender in the ocean, I would love that title, and I would try

to support more and more efforts to get money to the entities that

are going to do good work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Delahunt, do you have some questions?

Mr. DELAHUNT. No, I don’t have any questions. I would just

make one comment, Mr. Saxton, listening to both you and to Mr.

Farr and the testimony.

I think that if the public awareness is such that they can easily

and readily understand the potential benefits of ocean research and

what is occurring today, that the funding for the technologies for

which you have called this hearing—I think there would be great
19

public pressure to secure that funding. And I think that the community at large, the stakeholders in that community, really have

an obligation.

You have two tremendous advocates here in Mr. Saxton and Mr.

Farr. But if you have a capacity to transmit the potential to the

public at large, to the American people, the funding will be there.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you very much, Mr. Delahunt.

Let me ask one final question for the record. The administration

has announced that it intends to build at least three new fisheries

research vessels. The assumption seems to be these vessels will be

built with government funds and owned and operated by the government.

A recent report prepared by the Office of Management and Budget praises the design of the vessels, but raises significant questions

about whether these are the most cost-effective alternatives for providing the necessary fishery data. The report also raises significant

questions about whether NOAA will fully use the technological

abilities of these ships and whether it generally uses the best available technology when conducting fishery research.

Will the administration look at the build and charter contract operations or contracts for data to meet the fishery research needs?

How does NOAA intend to assure the use of best available technologies in fishery research?

Dr. BAKER. Congressman Saxton, we are very concerned about

getting at the most cost-effective way of doing business at NOAA.

We have not committed to any particular way of getting that capability. The thing we have focused on is the capabilities that are required, the acoustically quiet capabilities.

But at the moment, whether we build and charter, whether private industry offers this, whether it is something that is government owned and operated is something that has to be laid on the

table and worked out in terms of cost-effectiveness. All of this is

open. We have not made any commitments to the way we would

do that.

All we are looking at, at the moment, is the scientific capabilities, and we will make sure we work with you and the private sector to provide the most cost-effective way of getting the capabilities

that we need.

Mr. SAXTON. Well, thank you very much.

I would just like to make one final comment. The exemption in

the Oceans Act for exemption for operation and training, Admiral

Gaffney is the Chief of Naval Research, and we would just like to

point out that he did not seek to be exempt. Thank you.

Dr. BAKER. Congressman Saxton, let me answer one question of

Dr. Delahunt, who mentioned the public education aspect of

oceans. I think it is absolutely critical, and I wanted to say the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has done a wonderful job of

public outreach, which is done also by the Scripps Institution of

Oceanography, and some of the other academic institutions, has

been a very important aspect of public outreach.

And we look forward to working on the Federal side with our

counterparts in the academic community to get this public outreach

and enhance it, as you say. I think it is a critical point.
20

Mr. SAXTON. One follow-on question. The report that was recently completed for the Office of Management and Budget noted

the need to better integrate fisheries and oceanography research.

These two areas of research have been conducted largely separately

over the last 20 years. To manage fisheries wisely, it is becoming

clear that we need to understand the physical systems in which

those fish live and the interrelationships between species, particularly the predator and prey relationships. Just counting fish is no

longer sufficient.

How can we improve the interaction and our knowledge thereof

between fisheries scientists and oceanographers?

Dr. BAKER. Congressman, this is a very important aspect of fisheries, and we have some very nice joint programs with the National

Science Foundation and NOAA. There is a program called the

GLOBEC, the Global Ecosystem Study, where, in fact, we are looking at how all of these factors interact; and then there is a NOAAled program called FOCI, Fisheries Oceanography Cooperative Investigation, that is looking at the impact of climate on fisheries.

And, in fact, as we look at salmon migrations right now, they are

very much impacted by these long-term changes in the north Pacific Ocean. And through these programs, GLOBEC, FOCI and

other related programs, we are starting to get some understanding

of how the physical and chemical aspects of the environment affect

the ecology. It is an important, complex aspect of fisheries, and I

think we have made a good start, and, hopefully, some of this new

funding can be applied there.

We are looking forward to the leadership of Dr. Colwell, who is

a person who has been a scientific leader in these areas, as she directs the foundation to help us move these programs forward.

Mr. SAXTON. Well, thank you very much. I would like to thank

all of you for your testimony this morning and for your statements.

We appreciate very much that you are here. Members may have

some additional questions for the witnesses, and we ask that you

please respond in writing. The hearing record will be held open for

that purpose. Thank you very much for being with us.

[The information referred to may be found at end of hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. Now, let me introduce our second panel. Panel two,

we have Dr. Charles Kennel, Director of Scripps Institute of Oceanography; Dr. Gagosian, who opened our hearing this morning, of

the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Admiral James Watkins, President of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and

Education; and Dr. Fred Grassle, Director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences.

And let me remind you of our 5-minute rule, for purposes of moving the hearing forward. I am going to leave the chair for a moment and ask Mr. Farr if he will please take over.

Mr. FARR [presiding.] Dr. Kennel.

STATEMENT OF CHARLES KENNEL, DIRECTOR, SCRIPPS

INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY

Dr. KENNEL. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am the new, somewhat wet-behind-the-ears Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
21

When NOAA makes its weather forecasts that reach almost

every home in the United States, they rely on a whole variety of

observing techniques, mostly of the atmosphere, including balloons,

aircraft, radar, ground measurements, and satellites. They integrate all of these observations, and feed them into the most advanced computer models available.

And when NOAA makes forecasts that extend beyond 2 days, it

has been known for the last 30 years that global coverage is needed. So now it is time for the community to move forward, to go

from forecasts of 5 days to forecasting next year’s weather and, ultimately, the climatic conditions of tens of years from now. As we

do that, a broader range of physical effects and scientific issues will

need to be included in the observing strategy that started with the

weather.

Now, scientists have known for more than a century, that the

ocean is the primary driver of climate through its interaction with

the atmosphere. Now the public understands that in a way that

they never did before.

The 1997–1998 El Nin ́ o led to an understanding in the minds of

the average person that events in the middle of the tropical ocean

actually have an important effect on their day-to-day lives. This is

new public understanding. And we believe that this new understanding can be translated into the support needed as we develop

an integrated observing strategy to predict climate over a longer

period of time.

What we need right now is a strategy to get started. We know

some of the things that the strategy would have to achieve. It

would have to integrate local measurements in the ocean and of the

ocean with space-based measurements. The space-based part of the

integration has already begun with an international process

through the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites.

If we had the beginnings of our strategy in place, we would also

be able to identify those areas of critical technology development

that we could focus on to increase the capability of and lower the

cost of the integrated system. And we would, at the same time,

identify those variables—we can identify some now—which need

long-term monitoring.

Finally, we would begin to relate these two developments to the

dramatic improvement in climate models and computing power

that is needed and possible. There are new initiatives at the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy being

contemplated to address this problem.

I would like to point out from a recent visit to Japan, that they

have developed a very impressive Frontiers program that links together their marine agency, their space agency, and their universities to develop and devote major computing power to an integrated observing strategy for the climate.

As has been mentioned earlier many times, it is essential to improve, strengthen, and direct in a more focused way the cooperation and the coordination of the activities amongst government

agencies and institutions. I think the beginning of a clear strategy

of how to get started at the national level will enable us to show

leadership on the international level. So the strategy and getting

started is very important.
22

The first thing we need to do is to integrate the various ocean

observing techniques. The first poster shows some of the many different ways of observing the ocean that have been developed, many

of them over the last 10 years. We now need to think about how

to meld this capability into a system. We will need leadership, cooperation, and coordination.

We need to support research that demonstrates the value of integrating observations from different sources into computer models

with the goal of predicting climate. Scripps is involved in three

such experiments. One is an experiment on acoustic tomography,

in which we relate these results to satellite measurements from

TOPEX-Poseidon, and the combination of the two measurements

creates an improvement.

You have already heard of the Global Ocean Data Assimilation

Experiment, initiated by the international satellite community to

relate satellite and in situ data to see the extent to which the combination will improve predictions of ocean state.

And Scripps itself, with the strong support of the National

Science Foundation, has been involved in an experiment called the

Indian Ocean Experiment. This is a comprehensive experiment involving the efforts of 25 nations, ships, balloons, airplanes, and satellites. Their data will be combined into a single information

stream that will be available to all.

Finally, I think we must support the basic technology development of our observing systems, including the NOAA global drifting

model initiative, DOE’s comprehensive earth modeling efforts, and

the Navy’s strong support of technology development.

In conclusion, the most important question in environmental

science is ‘‘What is going to happen to me?’’ And until we can help

you give scientifically reliable answers on that issue to your constituents, they will not know whether to repair their roof because

an El Nin ́ o is coming or what to believe about scary issues, like the

greenhouse effect.

Mr. Chairman, we have many of the tools at hand to start improving our answer to that question. We need leadership, a strategy, and investment in those things that pull the system together.

Thank you.

Mr. FARR. Thank you very much, Dr. Kennel. We will be asking

questions after the panel finishes.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Kennel may be found at end of

hearing.]

Mr. FARR. Dr. Gagosian, welcome back.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT GAGOSIAN, DIRECTOR, WOODS HOLE

OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION

Dr GAGOSIAN. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Farr, Mr. Delahunt, thank you for inviting

me here to speak with you about deep sea research. As you could

see from the video presentation, I tried to give you some examples

of how we get to the deep sea and what we see when we get there.

Now I would like to address why it is important to the Nation that

we continue to be there and what is needed to continue to improve

our research, monitoring and assessment capabilities.
23

Through our association with, and the long-term investments of,

the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and

the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, we have

made significant scientific advances in understanding the ocean’s

processes and properties. With that investment, we have been able

to support an infrastructure for ships, vehicles, instrumentation,

education programs and, above all, human talent that is the envy

of the world.

But what do we mean by the deep ocean? Why do we want to

do research in such a formidable and hostile place? The deep ocean

is a world of slopes and canyons, of abyssal plains with depths

greater than 9,000 feet, and of midocean ridges rising as much as

12,000 feet. These ridges are linked around the world into a

40,000-mile underwater mountain range, the longest one on earth,

21⁄2 miles beneath the sea. There are approximately 2,000 sea

mounts on the sea floor, which rise from 3,000 to 10,000 feet. There

are also valleys and trenches that vary to extreme depths. The

deepest spot in the ocean is about 7 miles, roughly the distance you

see when you look down from an airplane. Yet only a few percent,

as Admiral Gaffney pointed out, of the ocean floor has been explored.

Now, there are many reasons why we go and must continue to

go to the deep ocean. It is where our planet earth is presently being

formed, contorted, stretched and quaked right now. A clear example is the tsunami that recently struck Papua, New Guinea, that

was caused by an offshore earthquake.

Samples of ocean sediments, which contain the shells and skeletons of previously living ocean creatures, provide us with a history

of previous climates and life forms. The deep ocean is not quiet, nor

is it unchanging. Deep ocean currents hold the key to understanding the workings of the global conveyor belt that carries

warm surface water to the north polar region in the Atlantic and

returns cold water to fill the deep ocean throughout the world. Understanding this circulation is critical to our understanding

changes in the earth’s climate, which will ultimately lead us to predictions of what environmental changes the ocean can sustain from

the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide input.

A very new and exciting application of deep sea observing is in

the forensic study of modern shipwrecks. As noted in the video

presentation, our institution has just completed a task for the British Government by mapping the remains of the M/V Derbyshire,

which sank in 14,000 feet of water in 1980. The Derbyshire is one

of 120 bulk carriers lost at sea since 1980, with the aggregate loss

of 1,300 lives. Our equipment and talented oceanographers determined why and how it sank, which led to recommendations on how

to prevent future failures on these ships, thus potentially saving

many precious lives and millions of dollars. The results of this

work were not only the subject of a TV documentary, but were acknowledged by the highest levels of the British Government.

I would be remiss, Mr. Chairman, if I did not speak about one

of the most important discoveries of this century, and that is the

world of the hydrothermal vents, which you saw on the video I presented. These vents not only churn hot seawater through them and

alter its chemistry, but also provide habitats for amazingly abun-
24

dant exotic life forms, as you saw. Ancient as this life may be, its

existence provides a significant leap in our knowledge about life

itself. Two-thirds of these life forms have never been observed before. Perhaps more importantly, what this may likely provide is the

key to our definition of the origin of life on our planet, and the possibility of life on others. The environment is also where we believe

new pharmaceuticals and biotechnological opportunities exist.

I will close with some remarks about the future, particularly

with regard to human occupied vehicles. The Navy’s deep submersible Sea Cliff has just been transferred to the custody of the National Deep Submergence Facility at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. As a matter of fact, it should be crossing the Bourne

Bridge right now on a flatbed truck as I am speaking.

It is understood that the Federal agencies intend to underwrite

the expense of an engineering study that will analyze the cost, feasibility and technical alterations required to merge the most capable features of Sea Cliff and Alvin. Depending on what the engineering studies produce, and the availability of funds, we hope this

will lead to an Alvin upgrade to give it a 7,000-meter depth capability, almost 41⁄2 miles. It has currently a 4,500 meters capability.

This would give our human occupied vehicle access to 98 percent

of the ocean bottom. It would also give the United States the international leadership role in HOV exploration, something that we

lost 10 years ago.

In summary, Mr. Chairman, that is how I see where deep ocean

science has been and where it should proceed. We need to capitalize and build on the expertise of today’s people and technology

to produce a robust capability for tomorrow. There is a tremendous

amount we still do not know about our own planet. We have the

minds, the questions and the technology at our doorstep.

If the last 30 years is any indication, future discoveries will have

great benefit to the Nation and the world. If we want to manage,

protect, and use our planet wisely, we need and must understand

how it works. We are ready to go, we need a national plan to accomplish this, and we need your support and help. Thank you.

Mr. SAXTON. [presiding.] Dr. Gagosian, thank you so much for

your very enlightening testimony.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Gagosian may be found at end

of hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. I would like to skip over Admiral Watkins at this

point, if I may, and introduce my friend and one of my heroes, Dr.

Fred Grassle, from New Jersey, and let me just say a word to Mr.

Farr and to Mr. Delahunt about why Fred Grassle is my hero.

Fred is a guy who seems to be able to make things happen that

wouldn’t normally happen. Fred acquired an old—it was Rutgers

University, and through Fred’s leadership and a couple of other

people, they acquired an old Coast Guard facility at the end of an

old road called Seven Bridges Road, on a point of land adjacent to

Little Egg Inlet and at the mouth of the Mullica River. They transferred it into a fisheries research facility, transformed the upstairs

into a dormitory, and became so busy they subsequently built a

dormitory at the other end of Seven Bridges Road to house the

multitude of students that became interested in the facility.
25

They decided they needed to look under the ocean outside of Little Egg Inlet and established the first permanent undersea observatory in the world. They got private industry to help fund it. They

got Bill Hughes and I to become involved in the issue, and now we

are among the proudest to have in my district, at the end of Seven

Bridges Road, this facility known as LEO–15 and the research facility.

And I am very proud to be able to introduce Fred Grassle, one

of the people that made it all happen. Fred.

STATEMENT OF J. FREDERICK GRASSLE, DIRECTOR,

INSTITUTE OF MARINE AND COASTAL SCIENCE

Mr. GRASSLE. Thank you, Mr. Saxton, for those very kind comments. Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to

testify on the status of oceanographic monitoring assessment. I particularly want to thank the chairman for his long-standing interest

in the subject.

On land we take for granted continuous, real-time, high resolution information provided by our senses; what we see, hear, or

smell. Our presence in terrestrial environments provides us with a

high proportion of the information needed to assess fundamental

environmental and ecosystem processes. We are not so fortunate

when we try to predict ocean processes, lacking the common-sense

view of our environment that is readily available on the land.

The ocean is a relatively unknown, dangerous and unpredictable

place. The livelihood and security of nations has long depended on

their seafaring abilities. Efficient, safe sea transportation is a requirement for the economic success of our ports and coastal economies. We need better prediction of coastal hazards, including

storms, coastal erosion events, harmful algal blooms, and oil spills,

or even when and where to spend a pleasant day fishing or swimming. Naval commanders need to understand as much as they can

about their surroundings, as you heard from Admiral Gaffney, at

all times, especially in initially unfamiliar environments.

Natural variability is poorly understood so that it is relatively

difficult to measure the effects of pollutants or other human-induced change. Ocean ecosystems are said to provide the greater

part of the services needed to sustain our society, yet the mechanisms controlling the delivery of these services are poorly known.

We have made a commitment to obtain high resolution, long-term

measurements from a broad corridor of marine and coastal habitats

from the watershed of the Mullica River to the deep sea, as you

just heard, using a series of long-term ecosystem observatories or,

LEOs, off New Jersey.

Our most intensive study has been at LEO–15, a site at 15 meters depth on the inner part of the continental shelf off Tuckerton

and Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. This has been a joint project

with Chris von Alt’s group at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and industry, as you have heard.

Just as meteorologists monitor present weather conditions and

use a combination of observations and computer models to generate

weather forecasts, Rutgers oceanographers are using an observation network to monitor the coastal ocean and computer models to

forecast its daily changes. The observing system is serviced by an
26

electro-optical cable that runs under the coastal waterway and

under the ocean floor to connect two underwater nodes to the Rutgers University Marine Field Station, and from there to the Internet, where it is available to all.

The system transmits video, sound and data on light, temperature, salinity, currents, wave height and period, sediment transport, plankton blooms, and a broad variety of chemical characteristics from numerous sensors that move up and down in the water

or are plugged into the nodes at the bottom. Docking stations, developed at Woods Hole, allow autonomous robotic vehicles to sample along transects away from each fixed site and to return to

download data and repower batteries.

You saw this vehicle in the video from Woods Hole. Yesterday,

the REMUS vehicle did a 60-kilometer run, measuring currents,

temperature, salinity and depth over the whole distance of LEO–

15. It has repeatedly docked and sent data back to land and over

the Internet at LEO–15 during the past 3 weeks.

Boats and divers visit the site on days when the weather is good,

and the satellite dish provides broad coverage of sea surface characteristics, temperature, ocean color, and surface roughness. Shore

stations, using high-frequency radar, provide patterns of surface

currents and provide data on weather in the immediate vicinity of

LEO–15.

I have attached a schematic representation of LEO–15 to my testimony, and I hope you all have copies of that.

We expect to add additional observatories at intervals across the

continental shelf and into the deep sea. Additional observatories

along the coast, such as that proposed off Martha’s Vineyard, will

add another dimension to what we hope will eventually become a

global system.

This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NOAA, the National Undersea Research Program, Office of

Naval Research, and the last year by three grants from the National Oceanographic Partnership Program. Our most recent grant

will transfer the lessons learned from LEO–15 in 1998 and 1999

to a program using a combined observation and modeling system

to predict harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Maine in the year

2000.

We can provide the observations needed to maintain ecosystem

services from the ocean, enrich science education in our schools,

and bring a greater consciousness of the ocean into our daily lives.

I strongly urge you to support, through individual agencies and the

National Oceanographic Partnership Program, the further development of a national and global ocean observing system. Thank you.

Mr. SAXTON. Fred, thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Grassle may be found at end of

hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. And now we will go to our cleanup man, Admiral

James Watkins.

STATEMENT OF JAMES WATKINS, PRESIDENT, CONSORTIUM

FOR OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

Admiral WATKINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman; thank you, members of this Committee, for inviting me here today.
27

As you know, Mr. Chairman, I am President of the Consortium

for Oceanographic Research and Education, the acronym we call

CORE, consisting of 52 of the Nation’s marine institutions. We represent those institutions here in Washington and have also initiated or undertaken a number of national projects, including the

National Ocean Sciences Bowl, and we won the ONR bid for the

program office for helping them run the National Oceanographic

Partnership Program.

Previous witnesses have described to you several outstanding examples of the kinds of capabilities we have or will soon have and

some of our priorities to better understand, monitor and predict the

greatest natural force on earth. They have told you what we need

to do and why. What I would like to do today is to provide a conceptual road map for how to do what they suggest; that is, how we

might transition from the ideas of our researchers, working with

the decisionmakers here in Congress and the administration, to an

actual system which integrates our national needs and priorities.

We have come to an important juncture in the development of

ocean science. More than ever our progress is limited by the lack

of important ocean observations. As the Ocean Studies Board of the

National Research Council has clearly stated in their new report,

‘‘Opportunities in Ocean Sciences: Challenges on the Horizon,’’ the

questions of marine resource management, climate prediction and

the role of oceans in human health require extensive and long-term

observation of the oceans on global, regional and local scales.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit a copy of this report for

the record.

Mr. SAXTON. Without objection.

[The information referred to may be found at end of hearing.]

Admiral WATKINS. The merits of a variety of independent observing and predictive system proposals, many of which were presented

here today, are well understood and accepted. But what we do not

currently have is the strategic framework within which we can

chart a course to final realization of an integrated ocean observing

and predictive system.

We need to couple an analysis of the mission responsibilities of

the various Federal agencies with our current and planned observational capabilities to determine the best opportunities for predictive success. From this analysis we can build a plan detailing

exact requirements for a comprehensive ocean observing system

and address questions on a variety of time and space scales, assimilating, infusing information from these various sources, much

like the well-established practices of the defense intelligence community. Analysis and interpretation would then provide the products which we will rely on for better prediction and decisionmaking.

Let me give you an analogy. Early in the cold war, from many

prior years of ocean research in deep ocean sound propagation, we

developed a highly capable and integrated system called SOSUS,

the sound surveillance system. This is a giant series of listening arrays in the Atlantic and Pacific, which eventually contributed significantly to our winning the cold war. Observations from these

fixed arrays were highly integrated or fused with multisource ob-
28

servational and predictive data from satellites, ships, aircrafts,

human beings and other sensors over a wide geographic area.

Notable is, one, the definition of a national need, with a full understanding of the cost and benefits; two, the commitment to develop a system, not just a collection of parts; and, three, the contribution of all sectors, each bringing their own strength to meeting

a complex challenge; and, four, predictions with high probability of

success.

The resultant $16 billion investment was repeatedly justified.

I should also note that the first SOSUS array went from the

blackboard in 1949 to full-scale operation in 1952, only 3 years

later, and at a $1 million initial investment.

Let me now shift to the graphic, which the Committee members

have been provided, and the graphic is displayed up there on the

first easel. The graphic is an attempt to place into context what I

would call a strategic framework for ocean predictions. You will see

in the center of that framework what is called the Ocean Observational System. It is a meld of sensors and platforms, including remote sensing, that would be satellites, SOSUS, aircraft; fixed sensors and platforms, that is the TOGA mooring that gave us additional predictive capability for El Nin ́ o, the LEO–15 we just heard

about, and seismometers. Then there are drifting and unmanned

sensors and platforms, including surface drifters, autonomous underwater vehicles, and remote operating vehicles. Then there are

ships and submarines, called the UNOLS fleet, which is the academic fleet, University National Oceanographic Laboratory System,

the deep submergence vessels, vessels of opportunity, which might

include the last of the nuclear submarines that have the capability

of going under the ice and can explore areas of surface that no

other platform and no other sensor can reach.

Then, inside those, are the information exchanges, with each of

those, what I would call subsystems of a larger system, for data access, archival, storage of information, data assimilation and computation. Each of those adds value in itself to our society.

But what we miss, then, is taking that and moving it into a product and benefit, which you see on the right side of my chart, which

goes through what I would call a virtual common data center,

where all this is brought together in analysis and interpretation

and doing the kinds of things that the Congress challenged the National Ocean Research Leadership Council to come up with.

They told us, the Congress told us to address that issue and try

to do the analysis and interpretation to give us the products and

benefits of climate forecast; sustainable resources which would be

the fisheries, as an example; human health, which Dr. Colwell

talked about this morning; military readiness, which is an essential

part of it.

And by the way, while I have the greatest respect for Admiral

Gaffney, I think it is a mistake to leave the Navy out of anything,

to exclude them from anything. They are a key part of ocean

science and technology. They used to be 40 percent of the entire

ocean science investment in the Nation. They have now gone to 20

percent. And to leave them out is absolutely preposterous. What we

heard from Admiral Gaffney was a work-around; that despite what
29

exclusion you put in, we are going to work it any way. That is just

an aside, Mr. Chairman.

At any rate, what we need now, though, you have seen this

graph, and on the left is the mission statement for the Nation, and

that doesn’t come out of my head. That is what the Congress told

us in the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, to horizontally integrate these agencies by national security, economic development, quality of life and education. And that is what we are

doing. And those cut across all lines.

And so, therefore, for the first time, we have a thematic approach

to horizontally integrate research and development in this Nation

in the oceans, and that is a paradigm for any other scientific endeavor, in my opinion. So we have on this chart, then, what I

would call the total framework for ocean modeling and predictions

that can really give society something new.

Now, what we need from the Congress is your assistance to move

aggressively in this framework to an integrated strategic science

and technology plan. We in the academic community are asking the

Congress to task the administration to work with them to develop

such a strategic plan in the form of a comprehensive and integrated ocean observing system that can lead to more useful products and benefits for all, as shown on my chart.

We believe, in addition, that to carry this out the Congress

should request the administration to employ the National Ocean

Research Leadership Council, consisting of the leaders of each of

the nine Federal ocean research agencies, to define components,

priorities, research requirements, and some sense of time lines that

might be anticipated. This plan should show how an integrated system would optimize the Federal effort to meet specific objectives

within those time lines, making clear the products and benefits expected. The plan should address the involvement of other maritime

nations with whom we share mutual objectives and can expect

some equitable share in the enhanced investments which will be

required. This plan should build upon the volumes of well-thoughtout agendas developed by the individual agencies, the National

Academy of Sciences and other national and international bodies in

past years.

Mr. Chairman, this will certainly require both Congress and the

administration to come together to make some new resources available. I think so often when we talk about partnerships, we forget

the fact that we need a partnership between the Congress and the

administration on this issue. We cannot do it alone. There has to

be close leadership cooperation here to try to set some new standards here for this kind of integrated science and technology plan.

So often we talk about, well, the Federal Government has to

have partnerships with academia and so forth. We need a partnership with the Congress on all this. As you know, we have tried to

work that way through the National Oceanographic Partnership

Program and its development. We need to continue that, with perhaps joint hearings up here between the Resources Committee, the

Science Committee, the National Security Committee, not to talk

about budget, not to talk about program, but to talk about strategy.

What are we doing? How are we pulling this together? So when the

agencies come through with their budgets, you can see them inside
30

a broader strategy. I think that is a worthy objective that the Congress should set.

So on the horizon we can envision greatly enhanced coastal

weather and longer-term climate forecasting, more efficient shipping, more informed decisionmaking for difficult environmental and

resource management questions, just to name a few benefits.

For the last 50 years of this century we devoted our national attention on outer space, and properly so. We need to focus our attention in the next 50 years, in the next century, to understanding

how inner space, the ocean, can assist mankind in meeting its burgeoning challenges.

The Congress has already set in place a perfect mechanism for

implementation of this kind of initiative by creating the National

Oceanographic Partnership Program. This program provides a platform for collaborative work by the U.S., as well as international

ocean research agencies who are looking to the United States for

leadership, but they want to know where to plug in. They have a

place to plug in now, and we have to engender that to leverage

these dollars.

There ought to be a 50–50 share line with the United States and

other nations, and we know how to do that. The academic institutions know how to work with them. But we have to have the leadership of the Nation, and that includes the State Department in

S&T and foreign policy. You know, I have been clamoring for that,

to improve that, and I know the State Department has asked the

National Academy to come back and give them a recommendation,

but that is a year from now. We need to move it now. We are talking about potentially large investments in an ocean observing system globally, and that means we have to start now with people involved at the front end of the design of such a system.

Anyway, Mr. Chairman, I hope you will consider my recommendations. I look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure we are doing everything we can to make wise use of the greatest natural resource on earth. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Admiral Watkins may be found at

end of hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Delahunt has some time constraints. Would you

like to ask a question before you go?

Mr. DELAHUNT. No, I don’t need to ask a question, Mr. Chairman, but I do thank you for the invitation, and I hope to participate. It has been very informative, and I particularly appreciate

the sense of urgency that Admiral Watkins has brought, and I

think that the ideas forthcoming from all the panelists lead me to

the same conclusion reached by Mr. Farr; that this really is an exciting time.

And I personally do want to work with Chairman Saxton and Mr.

Farr and others in these potential breakthrough initiatives we are

talking about. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you, Mr. Delahunt. I look forward to visiting

your district this August.

Admiral Watkins, you touched on a subject that is near and dear

to the hearts of many of us, in particular Mr. Gilchrest, who talks

about the diffusion of responsibilities for ocean issues, and, in par-
31

ticular, not just between the administration and the Congress, but

even here in Congress.

I have forgotten the number, but it is unbelievable. It seems to

me like there is something like 17 or 18 committees.

Admiral WATKINS. Forty-seven committees, Mr. Chairman; fortyseven committees of authorization, appropriation, in both House

and Senate. Yes, sir.

Mr. SAXTON. That even goes beyond what I think we had anticipated. But when we established this Subcommittee, Chairman

Young was kind enough to agree to the suggestion that we ought

to have a committee that’s named as being responsible for the

oceans, and finally the title became partly subcommittee on oceans.

So we are hopeful that we will be able to work with the House

leadership. And we have, under the leadership of Mr. Gilchrest,

begun to talk about how to or whether it is possible, given turf battles, et cetera, to restructure the way we do business in the House

to focus more clearly on ocean issues someplace. And, of course, I

think it ought to be here, but I am sure everybody has their own

idea.

But it relates very much to the objectives of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program. And I guess I would just like to ask

you each, have your institutions seen a change in the level of cooperation subsequent to the establishment of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program? Is it working? Does it need any refinement, or is it just fine the way it is and working well?

Dr. Grassle.

Dr. GRASSLE. I would like to comment on that. In building LEO–

15, a lot of people were involved. The National Underwater Research Program funded a lot of science out there, which enabled us

to begin to understand the environment well enough to really develop the LEO–15 concept. The National Science Foundation actually funded the infrastructure of the system. But more recently we

feel that the possibilities for using something like LEO–15 can only

be realized through the kind of broad partnership that our funding

from the National Ocean Partnership has allowed us to develop.

We have oceanographic equipment companies coming down and

finding out things about ocean instrumentation that is off the shelf

that we didn’t know about, because we are comparing these instruments in the field. Any instrument of any sort can be plugged into

LEO–15 and compared with any other instrument. The REMUS

underwater vehicle, in its 60-kilometer run yesterday, was running

the same route that a towed vehicle from a boat was running with

similar instruments. So we have direct comparisons to be made.

We also had Navy SEALS visiting, just because they were curious. They were working with Chris von Alt in another area, and

they really wanted to see what was happening at LEO–15 and

were very interested.

In the education area, one of our grants is in education, and we

are working with school systems in New Jersey. LEO–15 is available on the Web page. That would not have been possible without

the kind of broad approach to thinking about observing systems

that the National Ocean Partnership has allowed us to develop.

The Office of Naval Research has been supporting the modeling

that relates to these coastal systems. And through the National
32

Ocean Partnership, we have fully integrated the modeling with the

observing system so that the models are assimilating data, and we

are making actual forecasts of the ocean. And we were pleased last

week that the weatherman in our local area, in your district actually, referred to the upwelling and what it was like for the people

going to the beach.

So I think that the National Ocean Partnership has really helped

us develop the kind of crosscut all of us envisioned. I think I had

the opportunity to testify before this Committee once before, in discussing something that I know has been foremost in your mind, as

to how to get crosscutting information more available to make decisions about the environment. For the oceans, the National Ocean

Partnership has been an important step in that direction.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you very much. Anybody else want to comment?

Dr. GAGOSIAN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a couple of

comments with respect to the collaboration. If one looks at the list

of principal investigators, and the projects they have been involved

with, and the sums of money over the period of time, it is very difficult to do that with just one Federal agency. So there is a tremendous leveraging capability that the partnership program allows for.

And in many ways it is an initiation of that collaboration, and I

will just give you an example.

The LEO–15 exercises that Fred was talking about has led, as

he mentioned, to Chris von Alt’s work in wanting to establish another site on Martha’s Vineyard, where there is open water all the

way to England. The National Science Foundation has funded that.

On the other hand, there is a significant amount of cost-sharing

that is involved.

Because of the success at Rutgers in New Jersey, we were able

to obtain over a third of a million dollars in cost-sharing from

someone that actually lives on Martha’s Vineyard who is very interested in this kind of facility being on the island. So the collaboration extends beyond the Federal agencies and the principal investigators. It actually extends to some of the private citizenry.

And if everyone participates in contributing to these projects, the

Federal agencies, the private sector, and then obviously the scientists and engineers at the different institutions, then you really

will have a very successful program.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you.

Dr. Kennel.

Dr. KENNEL. I have a couple of comments. I am too new to tell

you whether there has been a change, but I will say the following:

That if you look at Scripps funding in order of importance, our

funding comes from the National Science Foundation, the State of

California, the Navy, NOAA, NASA, DOE, various other agencies.

And the surprising thing to me is how distinct the activities are

that are funded by each agency and how critical they are.

This diversity of funding has made Scripps into a diverse institution, and we have been very pleased with it, but I think as we look

forward, the community has an important new obligation, which is

to think about how to construct these integrated observing systems,

both regional and global. And at this point the diversity begins to
33

get in the way—without the further coordination that could be provided by an organization like the Ocean Partnership Program.

The things that need to be done are, first, to be able to develop

a plan, a strategy; be able to settle amongst the different kinds of

ocean technologies that have been supported by different agencies

and institutions, how they ultimately will fit into at least the first

steps of a global observing system. How will we reach a decision

on how to balance the contributions of each of these very capable

technologies? In light of that strategy, where will we put our technology investment funds? Who will be the system integrator? Who

will do the basic technological studies that would bring forth an integration at the technical level, the integration that we know that

we need?

So I think it is at this level that partnerships, a strong plan and

leadership is needed to do those tasks that we cannot do by ourselves in the present configuration.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you very much.

Mr. Farr.

Mr. FARR. Well, thank you, very much, Mr. Chairman. I wanted

to thank both panels. I just got out of a meeting, and I had to tell

everybody I had to leave because I had four science directors, an

admiral, a secretary and a president waiting for me. So thank you

for being who you are.

I look at today as sort of in two categories. One is the existing

funding category that comes essentially through the public sector,

and Dr. Kennel kind of mentioned the State of California, the

NOAA, the Navy, National Science Foundation.

Dr. KENNEL. Department of Energy, NASA.

Mr. FARR. Department of Energy and NASA. All of those are

public-funded entities, taxpayer dollars. And it seems to me we

ought to be getting—from the importance that the panel has told

us, we ought to be getting a better share of the pie.

Then the other side is how do you expand the politics, the lobbying effort, the public’s interest in making this a priority? Really,

I think we need to focus a little bit more on that.

First of all, on the public side, I believe that each of you have

financial officers in your entities. You ought to be taking a look at

the requirements of that funding and come back to us as legislators

and show us where the bureaucracy just doesn’t make any sense,

where there is duplication and overlap.

Secondly, I think we need to have some messages that we are not

making, and, Admiral Watkins, I was interested in your comment

on that. Dr. Gagosian talked about all the things we needed to do

and explore and how we sort of lost the lead. I guess it is the Japanese that are really putting the money into equipment. We still

have the know-how, as I understand, but they have the better machinery.

If we are so unexplored in the ocean, and there is so much to

learn, and it really has to do with, in a sense, national security,

knowledge about the planet, why hasn’t this moved more into a national security issue, particularly in a post-cold war era, where we

are sort of converting to do things we need to do? We have not done

very much to put the exploration into a national security issue.

Admiral WATKINS. No, we have not, Mr. Farr.
34

The United States Navy used to command 7 percent of the na- tional research budget in the old days when it was $8 billion. This

is 15 years ago. Today it is 31⁄2 percent of a budget which has al- most doubled to $14 billion. I am talking basic research now of the

R&D component, the R component that is seldom broken out from

D. D disguises the R many times because in D you can have prototype development of a new B–2 aircraft or a nuclear submarine, so

it disguises what is in R.

R is the research component. That is what I am talking about. It went from $8 to $14 billion. In oceans it stayed constant in constant dollars, and everybody says, well, that is pretty good, staying

constant in constant dollars. Now we are 31⁄2 percent of the investment. That is totally inadequate, and we should be building back

over the next 5 to 7 years to something of the order of $800 or $900

million.

So we are not talking about billions of dollars, we are talking about going up at about $15 million a year, And if they have not

explained to the Congress how critically important this is right

now, then we are not very articulate.

So we have to start growing, and there has to be a deal between

the Congress leadership and the White House to say, Mr. President, if you put in another $250 million over the next 5 years as

a kick-start for getting this thing really going, get international cooperation through your Secretary of State at the high level, start

leveraging these dollars up so we can do the kinds of prediction

modeling we desperately need right now, then we in the scientific

community come back to Congress with a plan telling you exactly

how we are going to spend that money in peer-reviewed research

that is integrated. We know how to do that. And so, that deal has

to be made, and we ought to do it for the year 2000 budget.

And the Feds that the come up here today, they have to stay

within the OMB rules. They cannot come up and demand more dollars. So they are going to try to live with what they are given, and

I understand that. But you-all have to reach beyond that and have

to help get that leveraged dollar up and have us get back to you

by the first of next year. So when you open again in the new session of Congress, and ask ‘‘where are you going to spend the $250

million,’’ if you put it in there? We will tell you exactly where. It

will be valuable all in itself, and we know how to do that. We have

to be tasked, though. It will not come out of the nine Federal agencies. They cannot do it.

Mr. FARR. I understand that, and I accept that challenge. I think

it is a great challenge. It is one that I accept, and I hope we can

commit with the Chairman and our Committee to accept that.

My statement back to you is we also need to move this into a

sense of national security priorities, because if we do not—I do not

mean this black box security, I mean the fact that the money

around here that is being appropriated still is in that, that is

where the discretionary dollars are. And we ought to be able to

move some of those discretionary dollars and make those a priority.

Admiral WATKINS. I could not agree more. I think this whole

issue of national security, unfortunately, has been swept somewhat

under the rug in the aftermath of the great win in the cold war.

And while that is a big plus, I think what we did at the same time
35

was decide to say deep ocean research is no longer necessary, the

Russian submarines are not there. And we did not pick up on the

fact that that is not the only reason we do ocean research. It is life.

It is full of life, and we need to know more about it.

So the national priority needs to be reestablished. And I think

everything you mentioned earlier, what we are doing now to take

advantage of the Year of the Ocean and put all these things in

place is a critical time to say, wait a minute, we have got a new

national mission of some import. Whether you have the equivalent

of the old Joint Committee on Atomic Energy up here or whatever

you do, you have to do something up here to send that signal to

the administration as well. And I believe we are on the verge of

setting a new national priority for oceans and how they contribute.

You heard Dr. Colwell talking about the importance of human

health and the ocean. We are just beginning to see that El Nin ́ o

has brought a new dimension. I am not talking about biomedical

research. That will take care of itself. That will be the self-interest

of pharmaceuticals. I am talking about what is the impact of temperature growth, whether it is anthropogenic or natural, on human

health as the population doubles in the world? If we do not start

that research now, 50 years from now we are not going to be in

a very good position to deal with disease.

So national priority has to be put on this and at the Presidential

level and congressional level, both in cooperation with each other.

Mr. FARR. I look forward to working with you and maybe even

actually shaping that letter. I am writing it as you talk. We need

to tighten that up and get it out and get our Members committed

to it now even before the election.

Then the second part of that is how we sort of increase this public buy-in that I think is out there. The excitement is there. I watch

the kids who when I grew up, you know, the space area, you had

to get space camp started and we got all excited. Now we have the

opportunity for sea camps, which I think the demand out there is

just really keen. And frankly, there are more places where we can

do those than we can do space camps.

But Dr. Kennel talked about it had to become personal. And how

can we start personalizing; how can we take the information that

you-all are getting and kind of turn that in? I always kidded, we

have the fleet numerical, the Navy’s center for all the weather data

coming to Monterey. The Navy collects all the weather data on the

globe, every measurable instrument, and it is all fed into Monterey.

So I said, if you are so damn smart with your big Cray computer,

why cannot you tell the farmers what the weather is going to be

like in the Salinas Valley, or why cannot you tell the surfers what

the weather is going to be like on the coast? I said, there are some

real commercial interests with what you do.

Dr. KENNEL. Let me just say that, first of all, the National

Oceans Conference did have a personal impact on me. I came back

to San Diego, and I wore the cap from the conference the next day

to the cleaner, and the gentleman behind the desk said, ‘‘Oh, I see

were you at Monterey.’’ And I said, ‘‘Yeah.’’ He said, ‘‘You know.

All the fish have gone away. The ocean is responsible for climate.

And our coastlines are a mess.’’ And I said—‘‘well, he got the message.’’
36

In any case, Scripps has a program with regard to surf. It is an

interesting story. Our program takes the Navy’s prediction of wave

heights on the open ocean and translates it into wave action on a

kilometer-by-kilometer basis along the California coast. And there

is a big surfing beach just north of Monterey. The Scripps folks

came to me one day and said, ‘‘You know, we are predicting 25-foot

wave heights out there. What should we do?’’ I said, ‘‘Put it on the

Internet.’’ It had a very interesting effect. Most of the surfers from

that region who were very knowledgeable said, ‘‘we are going to

stay away from this one, we know what this place is like.’’ But

other people from Hawaii and Australia flew in to catch the waves.

And as you know, the Coast Guard had to intervene and forbid

them from surfing.

In any case, it is not only important for surfers to predict wave

heights, but it is those waves that are basically responsible for the

transport of sediments down the California coast. Ultimately, we

are going to be able to tie a lot of the work together. We are going

to be able to take El Nin ́ o predictions—we are not ready yet—but

we will be able to convert those into the water flow in all the California watersheds, the rivers. We will be able to estimate how

much sediment the rivers bring toward the ocean and how much

gets into the ocean. We will be able to put it all together.

Mr. FARR. I think the more we do that, the more you will begin

buying into this public awareness that we need as politicians to put

their limited tax dollars in the right place.

Dr. KENNEL. The scientists can help to a significant extent. For

example, just the whole effort to increase the resolution of computer modeling. This effort takes the global information, which we

need, and actually brings it down to the local scale and actually improves that. And I believe the whole climate community is certainly

focused on that issue. They understand the issue, but the results

are not there yet.

Mr. FARR. The next time you bring the group that you talked

about in your testimony together, would you include FEMA in it?

The coastal States are really concerned about erosion. And FEMA

once had a policy where they would provide the FEMA funding for

coastal erosion, and they have now backed away from all of that.

And they know there is a big cost out there, but it is a big problem.

The Florida delegation is very concerned about it, certainly California, other areas where there is large populations.

We have not yet connected the science group and the economics

that you have been able to pull out of that with the emergency

funding folks, both OMB and FEMA. So you need to get them into

your round table.

Dr. GAGOSIAN. Mr. Farr, if I could make just a comment about

your thoughts on public outreach. I think we have done a very poor

job in the scientific community in articulating the discoveries and

the excitement, especially of ocean sciences. I think that is beginning to change now.

I think one of the reasons why we have done a poor job is, one,

that things were pretty good in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and we focused on how to spend the money and how best to spend money.

Second, we do not really know how to communicate outside our
37

own community very well, so we stayed within our own community.

But I think that is changing.

There are a couple of major programs that are being undertaken

now. I think one way to do it is through traveling-museum exhibits, where the substance is put in place by the scientists themselves, but not the way the exhibit is put together. That is put together by professionals who work in concert in a collegial way. And

we actually are doing something like that now. Two 7,000-squarefoot museum exhibits that will be done, hopefully, by the beginning

of 1999, or at least by the middle of 1999, will travel to 15 major

museums around the country, museums that have 2 to 4 million

a people a year that go through them. So that is one way to do it.

The other is with respect to the K–12 issue. Again, I think it is

necessary to have professionals. Most of the time scientists tell people what they need to know. They rarely ask them what they want

to know. And I think we have to change that pattern, especially

with teachers. And that is beginning to happen as well.

Again, one way do that is with a professional outside company,

and we have actually spun off an outside company to start something like that, with people that know this business that are in the

publication business, and they themselves are working with, in this

particular case, Harcourt General, who has put significant money

in, significant being over a million dollars, to start to put together

curriculum for fourth- to sixth-graders and seventh- to ninth-graders, a curriculum that will consist of books and workbooks and

handbooks, but also obviously a very strong Web interactive service

so that the students can see the results as they are happening and

actually talk with the people that are being involved.

Video will play a big part in this as well. I see that coming on

the horizon. When we took the ship Atlantis that we have to Washington, to Alexandria, last year, it was a real wake-up call for me

because every kid wanted to see that, and they were very excited.

Ocean sciences is a wonderful way to hook children to get them interested in the basic sciences, because the ocean is not a science,

it is a place, and you need physics and chemistry and biology and

engineering and geology. And that is the great hook that I think

will bring the children into it.

Dr. GRASSLE. I just want to agree with Bob’s comment on the importance of getting marine science into the schools. We are involved

in about 40 different school districts in New Jersey working with

teachers to introduce a marine science curriculum as part of a

science program at those schools. And we just 2 weeks ago had a

workshop for teachers involved with LEO, and they went out on

the boats, they watched the computers, looked at the models and

so on. So they got a real, firsthand feel that they could bring back

to the classroom.

But I also think that, in trying to get the public involved, we

need to better explain that applied problems are also basic problems. I am always surprised when I go to various forums on problems such as beach erosion or problems associated with pollution

of our ports that people do not go back to first principles and say,

how does this environment work, how does sand move off the coast

of New Jersey in our case, or what really is controlling the movement of contaminated sediment at the port?
38

These are observing system issues, but the observing system is

simply the basis for the understanding. And we feel that getting

the public involved by putting the information from observing systems relevant to applied problems over the Internet is involving

the public. Also, making data available through geographic search

engines over the Internet is another useful approach.

Mr. FARR. All the high schools in rural areas teach agriculture

because there are jobs after you get out of high school. Every ocean

community high school ought to be teaching about the oceans because there are going to be jobs in the oceans. And we have not

linked that future employment to our educational training.

Dr. GRASSLE. I know you are familiar with Project MARE developed at Berkeley. That is the curriculum we are using in these 40

school districts.

Mr. FARR. Take a look at the Virtual Canyon, which is one of the

exhibits at Expo in Lisbon that was formed from the high school

and elementary schools in Monterey on the Monterey Canyon. It is

a very exciting curriculum that they are developing right now.

Mr. SAXTON. Let me just expand the conversation if I may for

just a moment, and then we are going to have to leave.

Obviously, as was pointed out by the admiral earlier, the ocean

covers a great deal more of the earth than we have the capacity

to study, particularly as a result of our efforts here in this country.

And it seems to me that a cooperative effort internationally would

be quite beneficial in light of the fact that these activities are extremely expensive and we are stretching now to expend our efforts.

What is going on internationally? Is there a degree of cooperation, and is there reason for us to be optimistic that ocean research

internationally is something that we could look forward to hearing

more about?

Dr. GAGOSIAN. Mr. Chairman, there are a couple of examples I

would like to give. One is with respect to the ocean observing system in our countries.

The European Union is moving ahead very rapidly. As a matter

of fact, they are ahead of us. They are already planning experiments in the northeastern part of the Atlantic Ocean. On the other

hand, there are a lot of discussions going on between our scientists

and their scientists in planning joint expeditions and joint plans.

There is a lot of cooperation also with the Japanese with respect

to the potential for new ocean-drilling program opportunities into

the next millennium, and they are actively involved in those discussions, not only with the United States, but with several other

countries that are involved in the ocean-drilling program.

And third, the Japanese, also with respect to deep sea observatories, are putting sums of money into this problem that are a bit

overwhelming. The Japanese Marine Science and Technology Center had a $100 million plus-up just for deep sea observatories and

autonomous vehicles. One hundred million dollars is half of the

total NSF ocean sciences budget in one year. So that is just the

plus-up.

So clearly there are a lot of opportunities to work with them. But

those are just three examples, and I am sure that there are other

members of the panel that have others.
39

Dr. KENNEL. Perhaps my experience at NASA in helping develop

an integrated observing strategy from space will be helpful. There

is a Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, which consists of

18 spacefaring nations. The program leaders get together once a

year, and they have worked to coordinate their activities. At

NASA’s pushing, we convinced them that the integration of the

space observations could only go so far, at which point they had to

come to grips with the fact that they also needed complementary

ground-based and in-ocean observations. They then stopped and

asked themselves the question, OK, that is scientifically correct;

Now what do we do? Whom do we talk to?

They have been having difficulty finding an analogous organization to speak to that could pull together the in situ observations.

In this particular case, the oceans let us organize our efforts in

such a way that we could work on the international scene with the

already partially organized space effort.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you.

Dr. Grassle.

Dr. GRASSLE. There is also interest in having an observing system for biological diversity, and there is an international program

called DIVERSITAS, which is kind of an umbrella for most of the

international organizations. And although DIVERSITAS has mostly terrestrial members of its executive committee, there is really a

strong effort to get something going in the marine environment.

Recently the Sloan Foundation became interested in this issue,

raising the question as to why we cannot have a clear idea of how

many fish are in the ocean, how many fish species.

Now, I see this as a metaphor for understanding about life in

general in the oceans. Rita Colwell mentioned that the new technologies in ocean observation give us the background to look in

more detail at the processes in the ocean. That is particularly true

for organisms such as fish, but also life on the sea floor and the

enormous diversity in the deep sea.

All of that depends on designing a global sampling system so

that we do not inadvertently lose this important diversity for future generations.

Mr. SAXTON. Thank you very much.

I want to thank each of you for the insights that you have

brought to us today. It has been a very interesting and educational

21⁄2 hours or so that we have been able to spend here with you

today. We could spend a lot more time; however, we are going to

have to bring the Subcommittee hearing to a close at this point. So

thank you very much.

The hearing record will be kept open for 30 days for potential responses to questions that Members may have, which they will submit in writing.

[The information referred to may be found at end of hearing.]

Mr. SAXTON. If there is no further business, the Chairman again

thanks the members of the Subcommittee, as well as our witnesses,

and the Subcommittee stands adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 12:18 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

[Additional material submitted for the record follows.]
40

STATEMENT OF D. JAMES BAKER, UNDER SECRETARY FOR OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

INTRODUCTION

Good morning. I am James Baker, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and

Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Subcommittee, for this opportunity to testify on ocean observations and related activities performed by the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Over ten years ago, NOAA embarked on a mission to observe and record physical

oceanographic and surface meteorologic features in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

This mission required the deployment of a new variety of observing instruments, including moored buoys, drifting buoys, atmospheric profilers, tide guages, and sensors released from volunteer ships. These instruments began to record data related

to ocean currents, profiles of seawater temperature, salinity, and surface wind and

air temperature. For years, these data were collected, transmitted via satellite to

NOAA laboratories, and studied by Federal, university, and even international scientists. Over time, the data began to present shapes and patterns of physical oceanic change, and divulge secrets of one of nature’s most powerful climatic events,

the El Nin ́ o. The result of this sustained investment in ocean observation has

brought unprecedented economic returns to this country and has introduced ocean

and climate science to homes across all regions of the United States. Beyond question, the benefits from this type of long-term, continuous ocean observation are enormous. NOAA’s many activities during the El Nin ́ o of 1997/1998 demonstrated the value

of long-term ocean observations, and of our efforts to discover the linkages among

oceans, the atmosphere, marine ecology, and human society. The ENSO observing

system provided the early detection of conditions that might lead to an El Nin ́ o, and

soon after models developed by NOAA or by its academic partners produced quite

accurate forecasts of the timing and relative intensity of the coming El Nin ́ o. NOAA

worked closely with FEMA, state agencies and the media to ensure that accurate

information on El Nin ́ o was readily available to decision-makers and the public.

Once it was clear that El Nin ́ o of historic proportions was underway, NOAA undertook a series of special studies to document impacts along the U.S. Pacific Coast,

where large impacts were expected and where a rich base of existing data were

available as a background. These efforts made dramatic improvements in the accuracy of 3-5 day weather forecasts, provided vital information for shorter range

weather forecasts and flood warnings, and we expect, will provide significant new

insights on how anomalous ocean conditions affect plankton, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals in coastal waters.

All seven of NOAA’s Strategic Goals rely to some degree on observations of the

world’s oceans and seas, including their physics, chemistry, and biology. Our understanding of the surface and interior oceans, their variability and interaction with

the atmosphere, and of subsurface processes and resources, is far from complete. Despite our recent success in predicting long-range climate events, including the current El Nin ́ o event we predicted many months in advance, we still have far to go.

Recognizing this fact, President Clinton and Vice President Gore called for an agenda for action regarding the oceans at the recent National Ocean Conference in Monterey, California. There, they highlighted the critical significance of the oceans to

our Nation’s economic and social well-being, and issued a directive for increased observations of the world’s ocean processes and features.

At this conference, the Administration launched nine major initiatives for the exploration, restoration and protection of America’s vital ocean resources. These measures will provide new scientific insight into the oceans, promote sustainable use of

fisheries and other marine resources, open new opportunities for jobs and economic

growth, preserve national security and freedom of the seas, and help preserve our

oceans for all time. The President and Vice President are proposing an additional

$224 million through 2002 to support these efforts beginning in FY 2000. The initiatives particularly relevant to ocean observations are Exploring the Last U.S. Frontier and Monitoring Climate and Global Warming. NOAA has a critical role in the

development and implementation of these initiatives.

To unravel deep-sea mysteries, discover new opportunities in the ocean, and better understand how to protect marine resources, the Administration is launching a

program to map and explore U.S. ocean waters with advanced underwater technology. This initiative, called ‘‘Exploring the Last U.S. Frontier,’’ proposes $12 million through 2002 to be used to expand two shallow-water observatories (Aquarius

and LEO), build two new deep-sea observatories (Gulf of Mexico and Juan de Fuca

Ridge), and develop two high-tech submersibles to explore exotic sea life. A new ini-
41

tiative has been launched in partnership with the National Geographic Society and

Goldman Foundation to explore our National Marine Sanctuaries.

To understand better the role of the oceans in shaping our weather and climate,

and to help address the threat of global warming, the Administration has announced ‘‘Monitoring Climate and Global Warming,’’ an initiative for an expanded

ocean monitoring system. We are proposing an additional $12 million through 2002

to place hundreds of monitoring buoys in the North Atlantic and North Pacific to

measure critical ocean data, including temperature and salinity at different depths.

To begin today, I would like to explain the scope and nature of NOAA’s existing

ocean observation systems and present areas where additional work and study are

required. Understanding our ocean observation programs will require some discussion of the tools and processes used for observation. These tools—submersibles,

automated profiling buoys, state-of-the-art satellites—are in a process of almost constant evolution as our abilities to understand the oceans deepen and our needs for

scientific data expand.

Clearly, ocean observation includes the assessment and monitoring of living ocean

resources. A major challenge confronting our fisheries managers involves observation of fish stocks using antiquated and unsuitable vessels. NOAA’s fleet of eight

fisheries research vessels has reached or exceeded their expected service lives. Admiral Craig Dorman recently reviewed NOAA’s plan to replace the capacity of these

vessels. I will conclude my comments by detailing his report.

EXISTING OCEAN OBSERVATION SYSTEMS

Perhaps the best known of NOAA’s ocean observing systems is the El Nin ́ o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Observing System. This system is comprised of a moored

buoy array, drifting buoys, a fleet of volunteer observing ships (VOS), remote sensing satellites and a sea level gauge network. Each component of this network contributes in a different way to our knowledge of ocean processes and to our predictive

capability. While the ENSO Observing System is focused on the tropical Pacific

Ocean, scientists have recognized that climate variability results from interactions

among different oceanic regions, so that improved predictability requires observations of all oceans, which can be combined to create climate information critical to

a host of U.S. and foreign users. Thus, in 1998, the International Year of the Ocean,

NOAA committed to participating in the building of a Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) that is essential to improving the basis for our climate forecasting.

The Global Ocean Observing System

Working toward the Global Ocean Observing System, NOAA has adopted a simple

strategy: through our climate research program, we support cooperative international observation projects which target modes of climate variability (ENSO, the

Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) the North Atlantic Oscillation (LAO), etc.) while

at the same time form ‘‘building blocks’’ of GOOS. The building blocks, or networks,

on which we are concentrating most of our attention for sustained ocean observations are the following: (1) deep ocean moorings; (2) surface drifting buoys; (3) tide

gauges; (4) Volunteer Observing Ships; and (5) autonomous profiling floats. These

networks complement each other, and each contributes its unique capabilities to the

composite system. In combination with remote sensing from satellites, these five

networks provide the backbone of the sustained global ocean observations needed

to improve climate forecast skill.

Using the same automated sensing technologies developed for the ENSO observing system, and in cooperation with international partners, a pilot array has been

established in the Atlantic in search of modes of Atlantic climate variability that

interact with the Pacific variability. Relying on a foundation of cooperation with

international partners, NOAA plans additional network expansions in the year

2000, building on the ENSO System and the Atlantic pilot array that will target

the North Pacific, the extra-tropical Atlantic, and the eastern Indian Ocean to observe the modes of climate variability beyond ENSO.

The first four of the five networks (building blocks) were developed over the last

15 years as part of the research on El Nin ́ o. The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO)

array of 70 moorings spanning the equatorial Pacific, the VOS fleet of 68 research

and volunteer commercial ships covering all oceans, the 63 Indo-Pacific and Atlantic

island tide gauge stations, and the global array of 390 drifting buoys, together form

the ENSO Observing System. This composite observing system, essential for

NOAA’s climate forecasting mission, is now maintained on an operational basis. The

fifth network, autonomous profiling floats, is a new technology that is not yet part

of the ‘‘operational’’ ENSO Observing System, but is proving its value through two

research arrays (described below) and is now considered a proven member of the

composite, five-network ocean observing system. The Global Ocean Observing Sys-
42

tem will consist of some combination of these different measurement systems. This

innovative technology, specified by the President’s proposal in Monterey, will complement other in situ and remote satellite observations to refine climate prediction

models.

The need for ocean observations to track the Pacific El Nin ́ o is well understood.

We also know that the Atlantic Ocean generates a significant, but less understood,

influence on the climate of North America as well as South America, Europe, and

Africa. The influence of the tropical Atlantic competes with, and is modulated by,

the Pacific El Nin ́ o. These processes can, for example, modulate the frequency and

intensity of hurricanes impacting the U.S. eastern seaboard, as dramatically demonstrated by the dearth of hurricanes in the 1997 season—a favorable impact of El

Nin ́ o. In 1998, NOAA supported implementation of the new Pilot Research Array

in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) in cooperation with France and Brazil. This array

of 12 moorings is, in effect, an eastward extension of the TAO array; five moorings

have been deployed to date, with the additional seven scheduled over the next year.

Other existing NOAA programs for ocean observation include the following:

• A global network of tide gauge stations that has become essential for removal

of the inevitable instrument drift in altimeter measurements for accurate climate forecasting.

• A contribution of 19 autonomous profiling floats to National Science Foundation’s Atlantic Circulation and Climate Experiment.

• An expansion of the ENSO observing system with 100 additional surface drifters, 75 profiling floats, and four high density VOS lines concentrated in the

eastern Pacific to study the North Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

• Satellite systems that provide information globally on winds, the thermal

structure of the atmosphere, and sea surface temperatures.

•The National Water Level Observation Network of 189 tide gauges to provide

essential data for navigation, tsunami and storm surge warnings, legal determinations of property lines, sea level rise, and other public and commercial applications.

• A network of coastal ocean weather buoys to provide frequent, high-quality

marine observations to diagnose conditions to prepare and validate weather

forecasts.

Seafloor Observation Systems

While at the National Ocean Conference in Monterey, Vice President Gore noted

that submersible and hydroacoustic technologies have brought scientists to a new

frontier in fields of undersea research. Recent scientific advances have allowed us

access to thousands of square miles of virtually unknown seafloor resources. NOAA

has a rich history of support for seafloor observatories and is providing significant

new support for various efforts. These include: the ‘‘Aquarius’’ habitat in the Florida

Keys, the Long-term Environmental Observatory (LEO) effort off the coast of New

Jersey, and the VENTS program in sites along the Pacific Coast.

AQUARIUS

Owned by NOAA and managed by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW), Aquarius is the world’s only underwater laboratory from which

diving scientists can live and work beneath the sea during research missions up to

10 days in length. For its current assignment, Aquarius operates at a depth of 60

feet at the base of a coral reefwall off Key Largo, Florida. The 81-ton, 43x20x16.5-

foot underwater laboratory has many of the comforts of home while also providing

scientists with sophisticated laboratory capability.

The special diving capability of Aquarius, called saturation diving, allows scientists to work outside the habitat on the reef up to nine hours a day without fear

of getting the bends, compared to one hour if they had to work from the surface.

Increased research time on-bottom is the key element that enhances scientific productivity beneath the sea. The support personnel of the National Undersea Research

Center at UNCW enhance program productivity through diver training, and scientific and operational expertise. Safety is a hallmark of the program.

Aquarius is the centerpiece of a comprehensive environmental research program

in the Florida Keys aimed at better understanding and preserving the health of

coral reefs and near shore ecosystems.

LEO

September 1996 marked the completion of a seafloor observatory facility providing

a real-time Internet link to the undersea environment off the coast of New Jersey.

This innovative link provides access to the ocean floor for scientists, engineers, students and educators.
43

The Long-term Ecosystem Observatory facility, or LEO, was established in 15 meters of water (and named appropriately LEO-15) on the dynamic inner continental

shelf off Tuckerton, New Jersey (just north of Atlantic City). The observatory facility, recently renamed the LEO-15 National Littoral Laboratory, consists of two instrumented platforms (termed ‘‘nodes’’), anchored to the seafloor at distances of 4

and 5.5 km from the entrance to Great Bay. The nodes are connected to a shorebased facility by 9.6 km of electro-optical cable that is buried 2 m meters below the

seafloor. LEO-15 provides an excellent site to test and deploy sampling and sensing

equipment. Guest ports are available at each node of the observatory facility to supply power, operate instruments, and transmit data.

The LEO-15 observatory was built as a partnership between the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS) at Rutgers University, and the Ocean Systems

Laboratory of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Support for the development and installation has been provided by the National Science Foundation. Additional support has come from NOAA’s National Undersea Research Program

(NURP) through the Mid-Atlantic Bight National Undersea Research Center. NURP

continues to provide support, both for maintenance and operation of the observatory,

and for research at the site. In addition, the Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) are supporting modeling efforts,

research, and further development of the observatory facility and its sensing capabilities.

One area of rapid advancement has been in the development of an autonomous

vehicle, REMUS (Remote Environmental Sampling Units), that will become integrated into the observatory facility. REMUS vehicles will be used widely in the vicinity of LEO-15 this summer as part of a multi-platform adaptive sampling effort

focusing on evaluating a relocatable, data assimilative, coastal-ocean forecasting

model.

VENTS

Through its VENTS Program, NOAA is conducting ground-breaking research and

observations of processes and ecosystems in the interior ocean and sea floor. One

recent important finding is the discovery of episodic volcanic/hydrothermal bursts,

called megaplumes, which inject massive heat and chemical inputs into the ocean

as a consequence of deep-sea volcanic eruptions. Megaplumes persist in the ocean

for months, maybe years, and have important ocean environmental consequences because of their heat and chemical content. Now, it is suspected they play an important role in macro- and micro-biological ecosystems.

The VENTS Program obtained access to the U.S. Navy’s Sound Surveillance System hydrophore network and has designed and implemented the world’s only realtime, Pacific-wide acoustic monitoring capability. This capability enables VENTS to

detect and locate deep volcanic eruptions and thus makes it possible for these events

to be studied while they are active. While these are the most common volcanic eruptions on Earth, it was not until 1993 when VENTS detected an eruption taking

place off the coast of Oregon, along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, that a deep-sea eruption was studied while it was active. These eruptions have profound impacts on the

ocean’s thermal, chemical, and biological environments.

VENTS scientists are pioneering the study of the sub seafloor microbial biosphere

through seafloor and water column sampling projects. These projects, including sampling of the plumes arising from active deep volcanic eruptions, have shown that

eruptions are literally windows into the biosphere. Within the last five years,

VENTS scientists have discovered that the most unusual of the bacteria which live

in extremely hot sub seafloor environments are very common in eruption

megaplumes. The monitoring and sampling technologies designed by VENTS have

made it possible to recover microbial species with profound potential in industrial,

environmental, biotechnical and pharmaceutical applications. For example, an enzyme found only in deep hydrothermal vents is revolutionizing our ability to replicate DNA using the polymerase chain reaction technique. This technique can be

used to identify, with a very high probability, disease-causing viruses and/or bacteria, or the DNA of a particular individual.

AREAS THAT NEED ADDITIONAL STUDY

The historic success in forecasting the 1997-98 ENSO event placed an immediate

demand on NOAA to improve tropical forecasting and expand our understanding of

extra-tropical variability. Conditions in the Pacific in the 1980s were significantly

different from those in the 1990s due to decadal-scale shifts in the ENSO cycle. Understanding of other variability modes in the Pacific such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the American Monsoon is a priority for NOAA’s climate research pro-
44

gram. We must build a sustained observing system in the North Pacific to monitor

this region of significant impact on the U.S.

A focused extension of observations into the eastern Indian Ocean is also needed.

Many scientists think that westerly wind bursts from the Indian Ocean may somehow trigger the onset of El Nin ́ o. There is considerable evidence that the sea surface

temperature variability there influences the Asian/Australian Monsoons, thus affecting their predictability and hence the predictability of El Nin ́ o. In 1998, the Japan

Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC), one of our principal partners

in Indo-Pacific observations, began deployment of their TRITON moorings in the

western Pacific as the first step in extending the ENSO Observing System westward. As a complement to JAMSTEC’s TRITON moorings, NOAA must work with

Japan and other Austral/Asian nations to deploy other network platforms to investigate sea surface patterns in this critical monsoon area. The expansion of these

types of monitoring platforms is an important component of the initiative ‘‘Monitoring Climate and Global Warming’’ issued in Monterey.

As mentioned above, climate models suggest that the atmosphere and the Atlantic

Ocean may be coupled to create a climate influence of great importance to the

United States, particularly the easterner U.S. The so-called North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Tropical Atlantic Variability (TAV) unquestionably affect our climate, but we do not understand how. The first step in understanding these Atlantic

regimes is to establish an observing system, similar to the one we have in the Pacific. Over the next two years, data from the Atlantic pilot array will be analyzed

to assess long-term observational requirements for the Atlantic.

Assessment and definition of long-term ocean observing strategies is a major task

for NOAA and its partners, so that only the best, most cost-effective systems are

deployed. Research projects such as CLIVAR and operationally oriented efforts such

as GODAE include efforts to develop effective observing strategies. NOAA will be

a major participant in these efforts.

Results from the existing undersea research efforts have demonstrated that there

are new discoveries with potentially large economic payoff waiting for us beneath

the oceans. NOAA intends to increase its efforts in the existing shallow water observatories (Aquarius and LEO) and to participate in the development of two new

deep water observatories. Efforts on the Juan de Fuca Ridge and in the Gulf of Mexico will allow intensive study of newly discovered species and estimation of their potential economic value, provide more quantitative data on the impacts of seeps and

vents on ocean chemistry and heat balance, and learn of other ocean processes or

resources. VENTS and NURP will work with NSF and others to implement an observatory on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The two NOAA programs will provide the sustained observation effort and dedicated logistics support that will serve as a framework for process research by scientists supported by NSF.

Over the years, NSF and NOAA have had a complementary partnership under

which the NSF RIDGE Program has emphasized sub seafloor science, while the

VENTS Program has emphasized the area from the seafloor to the ocean surface.

Both programs have an interest in the exciting biological discoveries in the venting

areas, and are working in close coordination. The NOAA role in the observatory on

the Juan de Fuca Ridge will require about 60 days-at-sea of major ship support each

year from either NOAA or UNOLS vessels, as well as access to manned and unmanned submersibles from UNOLS, Canada, and elsewhere.

During the height of the 1997/1998 El Nin ́ o, NOAA undertook a special study to

determine the impacts of El Nin ́ o on the west coast of the United States, with emphasis on coastal weather and marine ecology. This study clearly demonstrated the

strong link between climate variability and weather events. Over the next several

months, NOAA will evaluate how increased or redirected ocean and atmospheric observations might improve the predictability of climate variations at regional scales

and related weather events.

Finally, our 12 National Marine Sanctuaries remain largely unexplored. In Monterey, the President announced efforts to support the recently announced five-year

research expedition within the Sanctuaries that will be led by Dr. Sylvia Earle, the

explorer in residence to the National Geographic Society. Dr. Earle’s ‘‘Sustainable

Seas Expeditions’’ will assist in developing a more comprehensive inventory of the

biodiversity within our National Marine Sanctuaries. These efforts will improve

science-based recommendations for stronger protections, such as the ‘‘no-take’’ zones

in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

PARTNERSHIPS FOR OCEAN OBSERVATION

NOAA employs many different types of tools and technologies to undertake ocean

observations. A mix of observation platforms (ships, submersibles, moored and drifting buoys, tide gauges, etc.) perform in situ measurement, sampling, and/or sensing,
45

while several satellite- and land-based remote sensing systems provide broad-scale

surface measurements. The capital and operational costs of collecting ocean observations are very high and NOAA is not able to fully underwrite these costs alone.

Thus we are working in cooperation with other nations and collaboratively with

other agencies on oceanographic research and in situ and satellite observations. Further, we are working with UNOLS to optimize the use of research ship resources.

Likewise, it was through a partnership among academia, private industry and a

non-profit foundation, that Aquarius, the world’s only underwater laboratory, was

refurbished and put back into operation as Aquarius 2000.

These extensive partnerships are essential tools for ocean observation, and represent significant enabling capabilities. The two principal types of partnerships we

undertake are; (1) those with academic institutions and, (2) those with other Federal

agencies. NOAA is very proud of its institutional partnerships with academia, represented by the numerous state Sea Grant programs, the Undersea Research Centers, and the Joint and Cooperative Institutes. Together, these programs conduct at

least $80 million of research annually in support of NOAA’s missions. Additional

tens of millions of dollars flow to academic scientists through other funding pathways. NOAA’s Environmental Research Laboratories are Associate Members of the

Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), providing an additional communications channel to academic institutions.

Partnerships with private industry, particularly those that involve fishers in data

collection, are also important. For example, NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science

Center is developing an Electronic Logbook with Innovative Technology Funds. This

prototype project, which is carried out in response to an industry request, will give

NOAA the opportunity to mount private-vendor conductivity-temperature-depth meters on as many as 200 West Coast trawl vessels, to supplement data gathered by

research surveys on NOAA vessels.

NOAA has joined with other Federal agencies to undertake projects like the South

Florida Restoration Program, and has taken the lead on studies in Florida Bay,

where NOAA’s oceanographic and ecological research capabilities are critical to the

project’s success. NOAA is very active in the National Oceanographic Partnership

Program (NOPP). We support the purpose of NOPP, as stated by the Congress, and

are very appreciative of the leadership role played by the Secretary of the Navy and

the Office of Naval Research. The NOPP Program Office at CORE is providing excellent support to the NOPP Interagency Working Group.

During the first two years of NOPP, NOAA scientists partnered with various

agency, academic, and private sector colleagues to establish systems to make ocean

observations, including a pilot North Pacific mooring, development of chemical and

big-optical sensors, dual use of the Navy’s Over the Horizon Radar, and a coastal

forecasting system in the Chesapeake Bay. NOAA and partner agencies utilized the

NOPP process this fiscal year to undertake a research program on the Ecology of

Harmful Algal Blooms, and NOAA’s request for FY 1999 provides funds for NOAA

to utilize the capabilities provided by NOPP to investigate the seasonal hypoxia in

the northern Gulf of Mexico. NOAA will seek additional opportunities for involvement in NOPP as circumstances permit.

NOAA supports the concept of global-scale observing systems, such as the Global

Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Climate Observing System

(GCOS). Internally, NOAA has organized an approach to GOOS and GCOS that

combines the capabilities of our research laboratories and our joint institute partners to undertake systematic, sustained in situ ocean observations. The overall scientific and engineering expertise available through this joint approach will allow

NOAA to obtain the highest quality measurements at the lowest possible cost. For

full implementation, we recognize that global-scale observing systems require international participation and financial support. At present, scientist-to-scientist, agency-to agency, or United Nations-based arrangements are being used for international partnerships. Because these global observing systems will be needed over

very long periods of time, these arrangements must be made by fiscally and technically capable governments, with binding scientific responsibilities, and a commitment to global application and universal benefit. Consideration of this might become

a task for a new Ocean Commission.

NEW OBSERVATIONAL TOOLS NEEDED

As discussed in detail below, additional observations of the oceans are desperately

needed. Yet I must add that another critical limiting factor to improved climate and

weather predictions is our limitation on computing power. The climate prediction

centers in the United States must have access to faster computers and larger data

storage capabilities if we are to create higher resolution models and incorporate new

types of data into these models. It does little good to increase observations without
46

the simultaneous ability to assimilate and apply these data for improved forecasts.

NOAA currently is evaluating the status of its computing infrastructure.

Understanding climate is a global issue. As the climate prediction centers begin

installing the next generation forecast models, better data sets will be required covering the global ocean. In addition to targeting the key regions of critical importance

outlined above, global measurement of sea surface temperature, upper ocean mass,

and surface meteorology will be essential. The international research community is

currently at work designing observational strategies for extended climate studies.

NOAA is evaluating the ENSO Observing System to make it as efficient as possible.

By the year 2000, we will be ready to move forward with the five networks to implement the global observations needed.

Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are developing a plan

to deploy moorings at several of the old at-sea weather station sites, where time series data sets from the past can be recovered and continued forward to document

climate variability and change. These ‘‘ocean observatory’’ moorings are being designed as a complement to the drifting arrays, VOS, and satellite networks, and are,

in effect, an extension of the TAO/TRITON/PIRATA network into the higher latitudes.

Along with the Atlantic pilot arrays, NOAA initiated a ‘‘Better VOS’’ project in

1998 to improve the measurement capabilities of the Volunteer Observing Ship

(VOS) fleet world-wide. By the year 2000 the automated observing instruments,

being developed at WHOI and integrated through the Small Business Innovation

Research Program, will be ready for deployment on the VOS fleet.

One of the advantages of the five-network system is its flexibility in providing

various platforms for measuring a host of climate variables—autonomously. For

global monitoring of carbon dioxide, measurements in the ocean as well as in the

atmosphere must be maintained. The oceans are major ‘‘sinks’’ absorbing carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Presently, ocean

carbon measurement campaigns must be supported by research vessels. NOAA scientists, in collaboration with scientists from five other institutions, are working on

a NOPP supported project to develop autonomous carbon sampling instruments that

can be placed on moorings (and potentially other platforms) to operate independently over the long-term at much lower cost. This project is also developing other

autonomous sensors and by the year 2000 will be ready to transition next generation technologies to the oceanographic community for long-term monitoring of biogeochemical and big-optical as well as physical processes.

The two existing arrays of autonomous profiling floats in the Atlantic and east

Pacific represent the early phase of a much larger plan under development by a

team of researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Woods Hole

Oceanographic Institution to deploy a global network of floats. Floating submerged

at various depths to provide circulation information, these 4-foot long tubes automatically ascend to the ocean surface once every two weeks to report ocean temperature and salinity profiles needed to calibrate satellite observations and interpret

subsurface ocean characteristics (satellites cannot see below the ocean surface). This

project is called Argo and is an essential complement to the satellite altimetry mission, Jason, and successor missions. The project will expand the tropical arrays and

help fill the large gaps—data voids of thousands of kilometers—between the moored

arrays and the VOS lines.

Another international project that you will undoubtedly hear much more about

over the next two years is GODAE—the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment. This project will create a means to provide up-to-the-minute analyses of ocean

conditions, the way we now have analyses of atmospheric (weather) conditions for

use by the shipping industry, search and rescue, exploration and engineering, fisheries, disaster preparedness and response, and all other ocean users, as well as climate forecasters. GODAE is a huge assimilation and modeling effort that will require the resources of many nations to accomplish. It is being organized under the

auspices of the international Ocean Observations Panel for Climate. NOAA is committed to supporting this effort through our ocean observations program—we will

help provide the global, real-time, in situ ocean measurements necessary for assimilation into the global ocean models.

In order to implement a Global Ocean Observing System, maintenance of an infrastructure for global data set management and international implementation is as

essential as maintenance of ocean platforms. It is this infrastructure that will glue

the networks together to make a truly global ‘‘system.’’ A critical element of NOAA’s

observational strategy is to work with our global partners to create the infrastructure necessary to ensure the quality and continuity of long-term data sets, facilitate

exchange between network operators, and produce and disseminate integrated ocean

information that is of maximum benefit to those who need it.
47

The ocean is generally undersampled. Even in the equatorial Pacific, we know

that we must add subsurface salinity measurement capability to the TAO array if

we are going to improve predictability of ENSO events. We may need additional

measurements of surface winds in the western equatorial Pacific if these winds are

determined to be a critical factor in the initiation of El Nin ́ o. We recognize that the

North Pacific, North Atlantic, equatorial Atlantic and Indian Ocean likely play key

roles in short-term climate variability and without additional measurements in

these regions, extending climate predictions to include regional- or local-scale predictions may be impossible.

Satellites provide the only true global coverage, but at present are limited to sensing of surface features and properties only. Application of remote sensing technologies from satellites and aircraft are under development to observe the wind field

over the ocean (scatterometers, lidars), and it is likely that such measurements will

be key for improving ENSO predictability. These remote sensing technologies, coupled with networks of in situ measurements from buoys and ships, offer the best

opportunity to correct ocean under sampling on a global scale.

More efficient management of our Nation’s living marine resources would result

from better information about the current status of the various biological components of the marine environment and of the relationships between them. In part,

this information must be based on independent surveys using multiple techniques.

Some of these techniques, like direct trawls for detailed sampling of a small portion

of a habitat, are well developed. Others, like side-scan sonar and airborne lidar, are

capable of covering much larger areas, but questions of data processing and instrument calibration remain to be answered. NOAA is working with various other countries and states to answer these questions and develop more accurate surveys.

OBSERVATION OF LIVING OCEAN RESOURCES

A major challenge in providing the required fisheries stock assessment information needed to manage fisheries is that NOAA’s fleet of eight fisheries research vessels (FRVs) have reached or exceeded their expected service lives. On average, they

are over 34 years old. For several years, options have been studied to replace the

capabilities of these vessels. The options have been analyzed by an interdisciplinary

team of scientists, acquisition specialists, design engineers and consultants from

NOAA, other Federal agencies and the private sector. Admiral Craig Dorman recently reviewed NOAA’s plan and generally concluded that the ship design will provide a world class fisheries research vessel, yet is not over specified. The report supports construction of four dedicated FRVs. These ships, supplemented with chartered vessels, represent a good start in maintaining the capabilities to meet our

growing stewardship responsibilities.

NOAA Fisheries has reviewed Admiral Dorman’s draft report dated 27 April,

1998. The following responds to major elements of the report.

Specification Validation

It is gratifying that both the process which was used to develop ship requirements

and the requirements themselves withstood the test of external review. They represent the culmination of a multi-disciplinary collaboration of several government

entities and private industry, which spanned nearly a decade. RADM Dorman stated:

‘‘. . . the FRVs as defined by the requirements statement will be outstanding vessels that should serve NMFS and the nation extremely well as the core of a

dedicated fisheries fleet for their full projected lifetime . . . they are not over

specified.’’ (pp. 7-8).

He also strongly supports purpose-built ships which agrees with the NOAA approach for meeting its at-sea data requirements; constructing a core fleet of purposebuilt, fisheries research vessels, and supplementing it with charters from the private sector and UNOLS.

ICES Noise Standard

Discussed at length was the requirement to meet the ICES noise standard, and

ultimately, the report supported both designing the ship to meet the standard and

including a centerboard to which acoustic instrumentation could be affixed. These

measures will improve the efficiency of hydroacoustics, allow the fleet to accommodate technological advancements, and will minimize survey bias due to behavioral

responses to ship noise.

Technology

The report also advocates that NOAA and other sponsors develop a national plan

for research dedicated to advancing the state of technology used in fisheries oceanography, and stock assessment, particularly with respect to marine mammals and
48

endangered species. NOAA agrees that a directed, collaborative effort of Federal,

and state government, academic and private industry research bodies to focus on

tools to better understand and manage the Nation’s living marine resources would

push the pace of technological advancements. NOAA concurs that a commitment by

NOAA, the Department of Commerce, and OMB to request the resources from Congress to implement a national plan aimed at this goal is essential to its success.

RADM Dorman, however, agrees that these technologies will not replace the need

for dedicated fisheries research vessels, but will be an important tool to improve the

quality of resource information and will help in areas where no other technique is

more cost effective. These state-of-the-art research vessels give fisheries managers

the highly specialized tools they need to make better decisions based on sound

science.

In Monterey, the President proposed an additional $194 million over three years

to begin construction of these new research vessels and speed implementation of

measures to reduce overfishing, protect essential fish habitat, and to restore America’s fisheries.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, that concludes my testimony.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

STATEMENT OF DR. RITA COLWELL, DIRECTOR DESIGNATE, NATIONAL SCIENCE

FOUNDATION

Chairman Saxton and members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity

to testify today on the important topic of ocean monitoring and assessment. This is

my first hearing as Director of the National Science Foundation, and I look forward

to many more opportunities to keep Congress apprised of the important research

and educational activities that we support.

I am pleased to report to you that the National Science Foundation plays a substantial and critical role in the design and development of the Nation’s oceanographic monitoring and assessment capabilities. We can identify a number of areas

within which significant progress has been made in recent years, and in the few

minutes available I will summarize for you some important successes.

The contribution that NSF-supported researchers make to ocean monitoring is

fundamental. Effective and efficient oceanographic observation systems cannot be

designed without knowledge of the active processes that they are intended to monitor. One exciting theme emerging from the past decade of ocean sciences research

is the degree of complexity and variability of the oceans physical, chemical and

biological processes, frequently on spatial scales of as little as half a mile. It is clearly impossible to monitor anything other than the surface of the global ocean (or even

coastal waters) with such minute spatial resolution. Therefore, it is essential to understand the underlying processes sufficiently well so a small number of key observations can be identified that reliably tell us how the system changes overtime.

Only with an understanding of the process can we make good decisions about what

measurements will best characterize changes in the ocean, and, most importantly,

how many measurements are required, and where they should be located.

The NSF-funded Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program focused on

the physical processes occurring in the tropical ocean and atmosphere. The result

was a recognition of the forces underlying the El Nin ́ o phenomenon, which in turn

led to the design and deployment of the existing El Nin ́ o-Southern Oscillation

(ENSO) observing system. The classic example is the array of buoys maintained by

NOAA in the equatorial Pacific. This array is proving to be a powerful predictor of

El Nin ́ o events. A small number of buoys, only 70 in total, in conjunction with satellite remote sensing methods is sufficient to monitor a vast area of the tropical Pacific Ocean. This capability was made possible by the basic research carried out by

NSF-supported investigators cooperating with NOAA, NASA and international scientists in the early 1980’s on the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program.

In addition to complexity and variability characteristics of the oceans, important

is designing a monitoring strategy to recognize the intimate links that exist between

the chemical, physical and biological changes that we are witnessing. Today we

know that it is impossible to understand the dramatic fluctuations in fish populations on the Georges Bank, for example, without understanding subsurface current systems that control dispersal of fish larvae. We cannot understand the development and distribution of plankton in the ocean (a primary food source) without

understanding the chemistry of the ocean. The ‘‘blooms’’ of plankton in the ocean

depend on availability of nutrients, including micronutrients such as inorganic elements and vitamins.
49

Clearly, monitoring the ocean must be a multidisciplinary activity because the of

the interconnected physical, chemical and biological processes that control the

health of the oceans. Support of those activities require inter-agency cooperation and

partnerships.

One helpful way of categorizing the measurements that need to be made to monitor the oceans is to consider the following three overlapping classes:

•First, we need sustained time-series monitoring that provides data useful perhaps decades from now to detect subtle changes in the chemical, biological and

physical characteristics of our oceans. These measurements provide the earlywarning of changes in our earth system.

• Second, we need selected long-term observations that allow us to predict

changes in our oceans and weather systems and thereby alleviate negative impacts—unquestionably this year’s El Nin ́ o activity is a clear example of this.

The real time experiments and the predictive capacity they provided gave us

some extraordinary new insights on climate and health.

•Lastly we need measurements, observations and experiments to help us understand the dynamic processes—physical, chemical and biological—that are responsible for the changes, that are the root cause of all the changes that occur—

the understanding of which is essential to any capability for skilled prediction.

It is the interactions of these processes that provide the elegant complexity that

sustains both human and environmental health.

There is an intriguing shift that is slowly occurring in the emphasis of oceanographic research. Two decades ago the most exciting and unexpected discoveries occurred because researchers traveled to new locations in the oceans—this is the traditional mode of ‘‘exploring.’’ However, today many of the biggest surprises are coming from measurements made at the same location but over long periods of time.

It is the dynamics of the earth that is opening up many of the most intriguing secrets. Today oceanographers are becoming more explorers in time, as well as explorers in space, an important phenomenon of the science in this area of study.

It is in the process-oriented category of monitoring and observation that NSF

is vitally active, and I am pleased to report that we are involved in a remarkably

diverse and exciting set of projects. I have sufficient time here to describe only a

few representative examples.

•The ocean moderates how rapidly the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere is increasing. We are just finishing the fourth regional experiment of the

Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) to trace the ganic and inorganic pathways of carbon through the ocean. The goal is to learn how carbon dioxide cycles through the Earth system. The Southern Ocean experiment followed those

in the North Atlantic, the Equatorial Pacific and Arabian Sea. The processes

of these unique regions will be combined into a global model that will allow us

to better predict, for example, future climate change.

•This past winter, a team of researchers has lived on an icebreaker that is frozen into the pack ice in the Arctic Ocean, drifting with the ice floes as a floating

science station. The project is part of a set of activities, taking place under the

U.S. Global Change Research program, known as SHEBA (Surface Heat Budget

of the Arctic Ocean), which pulls together data and information on how the sun,

clouds, air, ice, and ocean interact and affect the annual melting and refreezing

of the Arctic ice cap. This has long been a major uncertainty in climate models,

and the SHEBA project has already helped to improve our understanding of climate change.

• Although the unique biological communities associated with ocean floor hydrothermal sites have been known for more than two decades, new organisms are

still being discovered and the evolution-with-time of these sites is being explored—they are severely affected by volcanic eruptions on the ocean floor but

re-establish themselves with remarkable rapidity. NSF-funded repeat visits by

both manned submersibles and remotely operated vehicles to ocean depths of

12,000 feet and more are providing these remarkable observations.

• We recognize the need for long term continuous observations on the ocean floor

(not just repeat visits once every few months), and it is indeed a challenge to

devise approaches to this that are reliable, flexible and affordable. We are heavily involved in three particularly exciting pilot projects: two that use fiber optic

cables (a volcano observatory off the island of Hawaii, and a coastal monitoring

site off New Jersey) and a third located in mid-Pacific between Hawaii and California that will use an abandoned ocean floor telephone cable thousands of

miles long to provide real-time access to an earthquake monitoring station and

other sensors.
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This scientific research can help us learn how to monitor changes on the ocean

floor, and satellite remote sensing is a uniquely powerful approach to global observations of the sea surface. But how can we keep track of what is going on in the

miles of ocean that exists in between? This is a realm in which we have seen some

of the most remarkable innovation over the past five years fueled primarily by the

needs of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE).

As I present this to you this morning there are approximately 500 robotic vehicles

distributed over the thousands of square miles of the north Atlantic oceans, drifting

along with the ocean currents over half a mile beneath the surface. Approximately

every two weeks each of these small instruments rises to the surface collecting data

(temperature and salinity) as it moves to the sea surface, and then via satellite,

telemeters these data as well as its position to investigators on shore. After being

on the surface for about a day, they sink back down to their profiling depth of about

half a mile and then repeat the cycle month after month after month. These robot

floats, called PALACE (Profiling Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer)

floats, are for the first time providing physical oceanographers with a real time synoptic view of ocean dynamics.

Technological innovation is changing the way we do oceanography—permanent

seafloor observatories, new optical and acoustic imaging methods, long-term moorings, deep-diving manned submersibles, satellite communications, robotic vehicles—

all are mechanisms for discovery that NSF supports as part of the revolution in the

way we observe our planet’s oceans.

We are in a time of rich opportunity for research in oceanography. As new observation systems are implemented we will learn ever more about the changes that are

occurring on our planet on time scales of days, years decades and centuries. Hurricanes, droughts, floods, destruction of coral reefs, coastal erosion, climate change,

El Nin ́ os, fisheries, human health—all are phenomena that are affected by, and in

some cases, controlled by the oceans.

U.S. investigators in our nation’s universities and oceanographic institutions are

the world leaders. We do not lack for talent, or ideas or plans. If NSF can provide

its community of researchers with adequate resources, as requested by the President in his 1999 budget, then a spectacular future of continuing new discovery and

understanding is assured, that will build the intellectual foundation, and provide

the knowledge of the ongoing processes, that is essential to the design of an effective

ocean monitoring system.

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to share with you and the

members of your Committee the exciting research being supported by NSF. I would

be pleased to respond to any questions that you might have.

STATEMENT OF REAR ADMIRAL PAUL G. GAFFNEY. II, U.S. NAVY

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this

opportunity to appear before you to discuss ocean exploration, monitoring and assessment.

This year—the International Year of the Ocean—has heightened public interest

in our planet’s most important features—the oceans. It has also elevated ocean

science, research and education much higher on the national agenda, as was demonstrated by the prestigious participation at the National Ocean Conference held

last month at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Enormous

momentum was created by the Administration, Congress, academia and industry at

that meeting; perhaps we can use the remainder of this year to raise and meet national oceanographic goals that have been neglected of late.

The Department of the Navy has long considered the study and exploration of the

oceans to be a required competency—we must do it. We do it, not because we love

it, or because it’s interesting, or because we are chartered to do it—we do it because

it is the foundation that provides the information required for every Naval operation. In fact, the root discriminator that separates Naval Forces from Army and

Air Forces is the maritime environment in which the Navy and Marine Corps must

work. That point is punctuated when you consider we are a Naval Force which is

continually and agilely deployed globally; and, that is why the Navy must take a

leading role in national oceanographic matters. (Admiral Boorda and I testified before this Committee and others in 1996 on this point.)

Over the last 50 years, we have invested billions of dollars in research, global

ocean survey, data archives and predictive capabilities. Take for example these

ocean monitoring tools and platforms that came out of our naval science and technology investment:

—SWATH Bathymetric Sonar
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—Laser Line Scan Optical Sensor

—Global Positioning Satellite (location)

—PALACE Float (profiling capability)

—Current meters (conventional and acoustic doppler)

—Bioluminescence sensors, and

—Moorings . . . just to name a few.

We made the investment in these capabilities because we must be experts about

our working environment. We must know ocean processes so we can understand

how energy is transferred throughout the marine environment—a Naval need with

an incredible civilian spin-off.

Despite our past efforts, and those of others, it is surprising to learn that only

about five to seven percent of the ocean floor has been mapped to anywhere near

the resolution that 100 percent of the moon has been mapped.

Why is that? Somehow it seems unlikely that it’s more important or less expensive to map the moon. I, too, get excited about space exploration, but I get really

excited about exploring and understanding our oceans for many of the same reasons.

Future capabilities that will help us in our ocean quest include affordable arrays

of drifting buoys that can profile the water column and report home their observations. These exist in quantities of hundreds measuring some variables; we need

thousands measuring all important variables. Coastal systems that can profile the

water column while moored to the bottom are also needed.

As a science and technology funding agency—the first in America—the Office of

Naval Research develops many new technologies for ocean exploration and understanding. The major tools used today are based on a legacy of shipboard sampling,

but the future belongs to autonomous systems that complement the shipboard survey we will continue to need for decades. These new systems can be either moored,

or drifting, or independently moving small, unmanned systems. ONR is currently

working on networks of inexpensive autonomous underwater vehicles. Also on the

horizon are new remote sensing instruments such as the Naval EarthMap Observer

satellite, or NEMO, which will provide hyperspectral images when it is launched in

2002. It is a DOD/Navy/Industry partnership.

NEMO, like so many other programs, reiterates the fact that no one group or

agency can support all of the costs for oceanographic research, ship operations, surveying and modeling that need to be done on a global scale. The Department of the

Navy depends on partnerships with other Federal agencies—NSF, NOAA, NASA,

DOE, DOI—as well as academia and industry to develop new capabilities and leverage our decreasing budget dollars.

Another key opportunity for partnering is offered through the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). Now in its third year, this program was initiated, and is fully supported by Congress. The Secretary of the Navy provided Department money and took the lead in getting the program started. Other agencies

are now joining in with funding and strong participation. It is a terrific partnership

with real give-and-take, great understanding, new leveraging, and program focus.

Because the several agencies that are working together can actually create critical

mass to address the neglected ocean, the NOPP is the right body to address a national ocean exploration, observation, and assessment agenda.

I believe that the Nation should discuss the need for 100 percent survey and understanding of the world’s oceans during the next millennium. This, of course, can

only be accomplished if all cognizant agencies cooperate and participate. For example, we might consider starting such a survey, and beginning the millennium, with

a single exploration and mapping effort—100 percent coverage of one important

area. According to NOAA, thirty-six U.S. states and territories have a total of more

than 95,000 miles of coastline, so there are many suitable places to begin a major

effort. As I will discuss later, the NOPP presents a forum for discussion of a suitable

and plausible project. We owe it to ourselves and our descendants to know at least

as much about our oceans as we know about the moon . . . or other planets.

I’ve been calling this notion ‘‘GISMOE’’ for the Great Intra-American Seas Millennium Ocean Expedition . . . it could also be called ‘‘GABE’’—Great American Bays/

Bights Expedition. Perhaps I should leave the acronyms to others, but what is important is that we start the process, and there are two reasons I think this is worthwhile:

1. The crosscutting theme of the recently released Ocean Studies Board report

‘‘Opportunities in Ocean Sciences: Challenges on the Horizon,’’ is that we need

to observe our the water planet. The report concludes that ocean sciences are

at a critical point—a point where, given a commitment, ‘‘substantial progress

can be made on a number of societally important issues.’’ Such an effort needs

to be a national imperative and involve the resources of many Federal and

State agencies. So starting to understand the global ocean at one coastline
52

makes sense, certainly for the civil agencies, but also because a global Navy

needs to understand the very complex littoral environment processes. Understanding those processes in our own ‘‘Exclusive Economic Zone’’ and littorals is

more affordable and can serve as a surrogate for similar littoral areas in remote

parts of the world where we may not have access.

2. There is a great unity in the ocean community for continued and comprehensive observation for a myriad of reasons. I agree with that; a proper start is

to determine a full and complete baseline. A survey of a body or basin of water,

its water column, bathymetry and bottom composition is ‘‘Step One.’’ Then continual monitoring of that area over time long time is next. That’s what we do

with weather today and what we should be doing with the oceans.

These are some thoughts from a Navy oceanographer and Chief of Naval Research. I recognize they are hollow unless embraced by ‘‘100 percent partners’’—full

participation of all cognizant agencies. In that regard, this issue of global ocean

monitoring, and where and how to start is appropriate for discussion within the

NOPP’s Leadership Council and Advisory Panel. I intend to propose such dialogue

be initiated so that we join the next millennium with an acceptable plan. We are

doing our part by funding many projects to understand ocean dynamics, including

investigating new approaches to mapping and understanding ocean bottoms and littoral areas.

It will take decades to understand the submerged planet as well as we understand

the moon, but we need to begin somewhere. Your support for our requested program

is important.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I would be happy to respond to

any questions you might have.

STATEMENT OF CHARLES F. KENNEL, DIRECTOR, SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF

OCEANOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today on the status of ocean monitoring and assessment. I am Dr. Charlie Kennel, Director of U.C. San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO).

Overview Of Scripps Institution Of Oceanography

From our campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) continues a 95-year tradition of scientific leadership. SIO is one of the

world’s oldest, largest, and most important centers for marine science research,

graduate training and public service. Part of the University of California at San

Diego, SIO’s preeminence in biological, physical, chemical, climatological, geological,

and geophysical studies reflects its continuing commitment to excellence in research,

modern facilities, distinguished faculty, outstanding students, and public service.

Acknowledging our rich tradition, the National Research Council recently ranked

SIO first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide.

With annual expenditures of more than $100 million and a staff of 1,200 scientists, technicians and support personnel, including nearly 200 graduate students,

SIO is involved in more than 300 major research programs.

SIO also maintains one of the largest and most capable fleets of academic research vessels in the country with 4 sea-going vessels and one research platform.

SIO has operated large and small world-ranging ocean science research ships continuously since 1908. Ships were among the first technologies used by scientists to

make ocean observations. In a 1953 proposal to the Rockefeller Foundation, a

Scripps scientist stated: ‘‘The long arm of the oceanographer is his ships and his

groping fingers, the cable. Without ships to test and to explore, the hypotheses and

laboratory discoveries of the marine researcher become dry and insubstantial and

the researcher blind and isolated.’’

Scientists depend on ships to make many critical ocean observations (see Appendix 1). New technology has expanded the spatial and temporal sampling capability

of ships. Devices such as drifting and moored buoys, sea floor observatories, subsurface profiling floats, satellites, acoustic instruments, remotely operated vehicles

and autonomous underwater vehicles, enable scientists to make continuous observations of time dependent, large-scale phenomena (e.g. El Nin ́ os), abrupt events (e.g.

earthquakes, tsunamis), and provide the essential, complementary ingredients of an

effective global observing strategy.

At Scripps, we believe an integrated approach to observations—which includes climate, weather, global change, natural hazards, and solid earth phenomena such as

undersea volcanoes and earthquakes—is fundamental to sound science. This approach enhances the productivity of our research infrastructure while generating co-
53

herent data sets required in interdisciplinary ocean studies. Although continuing

technology development is critical, we already have at our disposal the basic elements of an integrated global observing strategy.

The Value of Integrated Observations

Predicting changes in the ocean is critical for the accurate forecast of the global

climate on time scales of months to years. Variations in the ocean structure and circulation patterns dramatically affect heat and moisture input to the atmosphere.

The oceans also play a key role in regulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Ocean observations are required to capture events, initialize numerical models for

climate and weather prediction, calibrate remote sensing observations of the ocean,

and provide real-time data for marine commerce, ecosystem monitoring, and fisheries. In short, any global climate prediction system depends on an integrated global

observing strategy for the ocean.

An integrated observing strategy is important to how we monitor and manage

local as well as global climate events. The devastation caused by this year’s El Nin ́ o

demonstrates the significant social and economic value of new capabilities to forecast climate conditions up to a year in advance. Economic studies suggest that enhanced climate prediction capabilities, if used appropriately, could reduce extreme

seasonal climate damage costs in the U.S. by 25 percent or $2.7 billion annually in

the agricultural sector alone. Water, energy, and transportation managers, as well

as farmers, could plan and avoid or mitigate losses with more accurate and timely

predictions. The agricultural futures market would also become more efficient.

In an effort to reach out to vulnerable communities, Scripps, the California Department of Boating and Waterways, and the California Coastal Commission hosted

a workshop in La Jolla August 19, 1997, to describe and discuss possible coastal impacts of severe storms associated with El Nin ́ o. As a follow up to that meeting,

Scripps researchers worked closely with potentially affected cities throughout the region. We encouraged them to prepare risk assessments and a list of possible mitigation measures. That information provided decisionmakers with science based, cost/

benefit analyses to determine the appropriate level of mitigation. In this way, an

integrated observing strategy, informed by public and private sector needs, transformed scientific data into knowledge that saved lives and property.

The media coverage of the 1997-98 El Nin ́ o led to a public understanding that

events in the middle of the tropical Pacific ocean have a profound impact on dayto-day lives. Scientist have long appreciated the need to understand and observe the

ocean, now the public does as well. We believe that this public understanding can

be transformed into support for the implementation of a global ocean observing

strategy.

Elements of a Strategy

Prediction of the 1997-98 El Nin ́ o was made possible by the El Nin ́ o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) observing system, the Topex-Poseidon satellite radar altimeter, and

improvements in coupled ocean-atmospheric models. The remarkable performance of

these research tools offers a glimpse of what a more comprehensive, integrated observing system and continued improvements in coupled ocean-atmospheric models

will provide. These advances will improve prediction of short-term climate events,

such as El Nin ́ os and La Nin ́ as (the opposite phase of the El Nin ́ o oscillation), elucidate the impacts of such events on regional weather and ocean biology, and are necessary before we can deepen understanding of long-term climate events like Pacific

Decadal Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and Tropical Atlantic Variability.

Only by understanding these natural events will scientists be able to distinguish

‘‘global warming’’ from natural climate variability.

Responding to policymakers’ needs for definitive assessment of global warming

and the range of its possible regional impacts requires a global observing strategy.

I believe such a strategy must contain at least five elements. First and foremost,

it requires integrating ‘‘in situ’’ with space-based systems. No one technology is adequate to provide the answers needed, as each technology has its benefits and drawbacks (see Appendix 2). Space observation provides global coverage. ‘‘In situ’’ observations provide ‘‘sea truth’’ by making measurements in the water, of the water, and

under the water. The key to implementing a successful observational strategies lies

in adopting a problem-driven approach where the system is designed to meet measurement needs specific to given problems. Both the data needs for numerical models

and a clear definition of new scientific questions will determine the appropriate

array of observational technologies to be used.

The second component of the strategy involves improving climate models, data assimilation techniques, and computing power. The combination of these tools will enable us to reconcile disparate observations and fill gaps where data are not avail-
54

able. In addition, these models make possible predictions ranging from global scale

to highly localized phenomena. Scripps scientists are currently developing a system

of ‘‘nested’’ models that will transform predictions of seasonal climate events into

rainfall predictions for individual California watersheds. This climate initiative

builds on established practices of weather services which assimilate vast arrays of

disparate data into complex models for forecasting.

Third, despite the array of technologies currently available, new instruments are

needed. Therefore, a technology development program that is science-based, through

the active engagement of the university community (see Appendix 3), must be formally integrated into Federal agency research programs. Technology development

should focus on increasing capabilities and lowering costs strategically to enable the

deployment of a global system. One advance of particular value would be the development of an underwater Global Positioning System (GPS). Underwater GPS would

be a tremendous advance for underwater gliders and other observational technologies, and enable profiling floats to begin to measure ocean velocity. Another

area of focus should be on the many chemical and biological properties of the ocean

which cannot yet be measured by any remote or unmanned technology with the necessary precision or on the same scales as can physical and geophysical properties.

The fourth component of this strategy ensures the continuity of physical, chemical

and biological measurements. By this I mean supporting long-term time series observations and data validation. These measures are especially important when scientists make predictions about long-term phenomena like Pacific Decadal Oscillation and global warming. As we deploy ‘‘better, faster, and cheaper’’ observational

tools, such as new satellites and ocean observatories, we must take care to maintain

established records and data in standard formats and on modern media, and implement a program to calibrate and validate new data sets. Furthermore, even areas

where technology development is still necessary, climatically important measurements of chemical and biological properties by conventional means must be sustained until they can be enhanced. For example, efforts to study changes in ocean

chemistry and biology must continue, especially as they bear on the prediction of

the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide on climate change, questions of profound

importance to predicting global warming.

The fifth element of a global observing strategy involves cooperation and coordination of research activities. Federal agencies must work to integrate existing programs, leverage scarce resources, and promote new initiatives. I am pleased to see

the Navy, NOAA and NSF here today. Coordination and commitment of these agencies, along with NASA and DOE, is critical to the success of this strategy.

Increased cooperation and collaboration is also required among universities, Federal agencies, other countries and the private sector. As we move from exploratory

research to routine monitoring for many global-scale problems, we will enter into

new partnerships, and use non-traditional institutional arrangements. Scripps is at

the forefront of creating such partnerships across institutional and national boundaries. In 1999, SIO will lead an international experiment in the Indian ocean

(INDOEX) to study the impact of aerosols on regional and global climate, a major

global change issue. INDOEX, involves ships, aircraft, surface stations and satellites, from several nations, including U.S.A., Germany, France, England, India,

Netherlands and others.

International cooperation is also moving forward on a broader scale. International

space agencies, through the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), are

working with other partners to develop an Integrated Global Observing Strategy

(IGOS). IGOS is a process to help ensure that resources are addressing the highest

priority observational needs, while taking into account the missions and plans of

space agencies, and the up-to-date requirements of major international user programs. This involves assessing gaps and unnecessary overlaps in observing systems,

as well as cross-cutting issues such as data calibration, validation, management,

and policy. Initial IGOS focus has been on the space component. Now is the time

to provide the ‘‘in situ’’ strategy to complement the progress made by CEOS.

Specific Recommendations

Given our present observational capabilities and the demonstrated value of ocean

observations in seasonal climate prediction, fisheries, commerce, coastal and military applications, it is imperative that we advance an integrated global observational strategy. This is the only way to provide the data needed by scientists to

make believable and useful predictions about natural and anthropogenic climate

change.

Having described the key components of the envisioned observing strategy we

must now take the necessary steps to implement it. First, research institutions and

Federal agencies must begin the analysis necessary to determine the best combina-
55

tion of ‘‘in situ’’ observing platforms. Satellite integration has begun under the auspices of CEOS. We must support a similar effort for ‘‘in situ’’ sensors. Federal agencies should then support the technology development and research needed to optimize the integration strategy.

Second, it is critical to support NOAA’s efforts in climate monitoring, particularly the President’s initiative for a $12 million, global array of subsurface profiling

floats. The array will complement the contributions of climate-related satellites. Another technology which has already demonstrated its value in conjunction with satellite altimetry data is Ocean Acoustic Tomography (see end of Appendix 2). Ocean

Acoustic Tomography measures temperature averages over thousands of miles, thus

permitting the detection of small climatic changes. Deploying both types of technology and supporting research on improving the use of integrated data will accelerate efforts to improve seasonal-to-interannual and climate prediction, detect global

warming, and attribute these changes to natural and/or anthropogenic causes.

NASA’s GODAE (Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment) initiative, a pilot

project of the CEOS/IGOS process, should be supported. GODAE will be the first

operational demonstration of our ability to estimate the physical state of the global

ocean and its evolution. With many potential benefits, including improved climate

prediction and understanding, GODAE will turn powerful data assimilation techniques to merging data streams from satellites and ‘‘in situ’’ sensors.

Finally, I encourage Federal agencies to develop modeling and data analysis programs that provide up-to-date descriptions of the evolving ocean. This effort should

encompass physical fields that affect weather and climate, as well as chemical and

biological processes. The National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy are considering important initiatives in this area. NSF is considering an ocean

data assimilation and modeling center to support climate dynamics and other

branches of ocean sciences such as biological modeling and assessment and pollution

prediction. DOE is contemplating anew to increase dramatically the rate of climate

simulation model development and application to produce decade-to-century-scale

forecasts of climate change with regional resolution.

Again, I thank you for this opportunity to testify and would be happy to answer

any questions.

Appendix 1—Ships

Scientific observation of the ocean has always required the use of dedicated, effective research vessels. Today, research ships are an even more critical component of

ocean observations than has been the case in the past for a number of reasons.

First, there is simply no way that many important observations can be made in unattended or remote fashion. Ships can manage observations of deep ocean chemical

properties needed to diagnose the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle and to track

them in various locations, tasks unattended devices cannot perform. Arguably the

most important observing network in today’s ocean, in terms of practical impact on

forecasts of real economic and social importance, is the tropical Pacific buoy array

(ENSO) maintained by NOAA. Its reliability depends on regular network maintenance using ships. Ships will be needed in increasing numbers and capabilities to

establish, maintain and support the integrated global observational strategy.

Second, as new technologies emerge, they generally must be calibrated with existing methods to preserve the integrity of the data. Calibration or ‘‘sea truth’’ must

be both extensive and ongoing, and it typically involves the use of ships. Finally,

global-scale measurements are increasingly amenable to remote or unattended observation. This refines our large-scale views of oceanic variability and focuses investigations into the fundamental oceanic processes that shape large-scale fields and

their evolutions. One can see the beginnings of this in programs that have carried

out shipborne investigations of upwelling regions guided by near-real time satellite

imagery to disclose patterns of upwelling activity. As the mapping and monitoring

power of unattended sensors grows, so will opportunities for shipborne process studies which will allow monitoring at all the scales needed to understand oceanographic

phenomena.

Appendix 2—Ocean Observing Technologies

No one technology is adequate to provide the answers needed to understand and

predict natural and anthropogenic climate change. Each technology has its benefits

and drawbacks. For example, the forte of satellite data is the regularly repeating,

synoptic nature of the data. Its limitation is that satellites observe only the sea surface, hence requiring subsurface data for interpretation and understanding. Principal satellites of interest in climate are altimeters (e.g. Jason-1, TOPEX-Poseidon,

Geosat Follow-On) for measuring sea surface height; scatterometers (e.g. NSCAT,

ERS-2) for measuring surface winds; and AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution
56

Radiometer) for measuring sea surface temperature and microwave rainfall measurements. Scripps is now experimenting with the measurement of tropospheric

moisture at sea using the Global Positioning System (GPS).

‘‘In situ’’ data are required to interpret subsurface structure corresponding to satellite surface observations. For example, measurements of upper ocean heat content

are crucial in interpreting altimetric height. In situ measurements are also needed

to measure the deep ocean, calibrate satellite data, and measure parameters for

which there is no satellite capability. As an indication of the number of tools which

already are available, a brief list of ‘‘in situ sensors’’ is as follows:

• surface drifters which measure surface current, sea surface temperature (SST),

barometric pressure and surface salinity;

• profiling floats which measure temperature and salinity profiles, presently to

about 15;

• moorings or fixed platforms which deploy a wide variety of instruments to

measure temperature, salinity, velocity, and meteorological parameters;

• volunteer observing ships which measure temperature, salinity to 800 meters,

meteorological parameters, and atmospheric trace gases;

• acoustic thermometry which measures sound speed, providing temperature

averages along paths between source-receiver pairs; and

• research vessels, which are required to deploy and monitor some of the above

systems, conduct hydrographic surveys (that include biological and/or geochemical measurements in addition to temperature, salinity, velocity), and meet

specialized needs autonomous instruments cannot.

Integration of ‘‘in situ’’ and satellite data has begun to show great promise. A joint

analysis of Satellite Altimetry, Acoustic Tomography and computer modeling found

that changes in sea level as measured by satellite altimetry are not by themselves

a representative proxy for the variable ocean heat storage (an essential climate parameter). But when combined with the acoustic measurements they yield a meaningful measure of the basin heat storage.

Appendix 3—History of Ocean Climate Observations and Technology Development at Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Throughout the 20th century, university researchers have advanced the design

and testing of new instruments and observing technologies. Scripps has played a

leadership role in pilot experiments for new in situ observing technologies (ocean

profiles and surface observations from volunteer commercial ships, profiling floats,

acoustic thermometry, and surface drifting buoys) that make large-scale observations economically feasible for some climatically important ocean properties.

Scripps scientists were responsible for the following breakthroughs in ocean climate monitoring and technology development:

• establishing the California Current monitoring system in 1937—the longest,

continuing ocean monitoring program in the U.S.;

• inventing and establishing the Volunteer Observing Ship Expendable Bathy

Thermograph (VOS-XBT), or temperature probes network, in the early 1970s;

• inventing and deploying the global drifting buoy network in late 1980s;

• inventing and deploying the network of real-time, profiling floats in north Atlantic and tropical Pacific;

• developing the most accurate techniques for measuring the amount of carbon

in seawater;

• and inventing the acoustic thermometer.

Clearly, continuing support for university collaboration with the private sector

technology development is important to sustaining innovation in the global observational strategy.

CHARLES F. KENNEL, DIRECTOR OF SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY, VICE

CHANCELLOR OF MARINE SCIENCES, UCSD, DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF

MARINE SCIENCES

Charles F. Kennel is the ninth director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at

the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Kennel also serves as UCSD Vice

Chancellor of Marine Sciences, Dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences, and

a professor in the Scripps graduate department.

Born in Cambridge, Mass., Kennel received a bachelor’s degree in astronomy from

Harvard College in 1959 and a doctoral degree in astrophysical sciences from

Princeton University in 1964. He was appointed an associate professor of physics

at UCLA in 1967 and a professor in 1971. Kennel became UCLA’s executive vice

chancellor in 1996.
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Kennel’s research at UCLA focused on fundamental plasma physics combined

with space and astrophysics. His work centered on basic plasma turbulence theory

and collisionless shocks, the physics of the solar wind and planetary

magnetospheres, and the physics of pulsar magnetospheres and active galactic

nuclei.

From 1994-1996, Kennel served as associate administrator for NASA, directing

Mission to Planet Earth, the world’s largest environmental science program.

Kennel was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1991 and was named

a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1992. He

also is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Physical Society. He won the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the Aurelio Peccei Prize

from the Italian Academy of Sciences in 1996. He received the 1997 James Clerk

Maxwell Prize from the American Physical Society and the 1998 Hannes Alfven

Medal of the European Geophysical Society.

Kennel has been a Harvard National Scholar, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, a

Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Brazil, a Fairchild Professor at the California Institute

of Technology, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow.
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STATEMENT OF ADMIRAL JAMES D. WATKINS, U.S. NAVY (RETIRED), PRESIDENT,

CONSORTIUM FOR OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee, I would like to thank you for calling this hearing today to discuss this very important subject. The previous witnesses

have described to you several outstanding examples of the kinds of capabilities we

have, or will soon have, and some of our priorities to better understand, monitor

and predict the greatest natural force on Earth. What I would like to do is provide

a conceptual road map for how we might transition from the ideas of our researchers, working with decision makers in the Congress and the Administration, to an

actual system which integrates our national needs and priorities.

The breadth of our national need for knowledge of the ocean system is daunting.

Research providing the foundation for missions to advance economic development,

protect quality of life, ensure national security and improve science education is a

complex weave of multiple disciplines and specialized technologies, addressing questions from the most basic mechanics of the Earth system to very applied engineering

solutions. Federal responsibility for the wide scope of ocean science is split among

nine Federal research agencies, each with specific mission parameters, but often

working in unison to address common research requirements.

We have come to an important juncture in the development of ocean science. More

than ever, our progress is limited by the lack of important ocean observations. As

the Ocean Science Board of the National Research Council has clearly stated in

their new report ‘‘Opportunities in Ocean Sciences: Challenges on the Horizon,’’

questions of marine resource management, climate prediction and the role of the

oceans in human health require extensive and long-term observation of the oceans

on global, regional and local scales. Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit a copy

of that report for the record.

For example, if we are to monitor and respond to harmful algal blooms, we must

be able to ‘‘see’’ their early indications in individual estuaries and near shore environments. If we are to understand the dynamics of commercial fish species, we will

require in-depth knowledge of the regional ecosystem and how it is affected by physical and chemical variability. If we are to provide better regional climate forecasts,

we must first obtain and integrate oceanic data on a basin and global scale. The

applications are many, and the potential payoffs are tremendous.

So, what is needed to meet our objectives?

You have heard from previous witnesses that there has been a lot of thought

given to this question and that we have a lot of answers. The merits of a variety

of independent observing system proposals are well understood and accepted. What

we do not currently have is a definitive strategic plan to chart our course to an integrated ocean observing system. We need to couple an analysis of the mission responsibilities of the various Federal agencies with our current and planned observational

capabilities to determine the best opportunities for success. From this analysis, we

can build a plan detailing exact requirements for a comprehensive ocean observation

system. The system would then include integrated modules to gather data and address questions on a variety of time and space scales, assimilating and fusing information from these various sources, much like the well established practices of the

defense intelligence community. Analysis and interpretation would then provide the

products we will rely upon for better decision-making.

We have undertaken a similar task in the past, which is worth commenting on.

After World War II, anti-submarine warfare was determined to be a national priority. The oceanographic community, including Federal agencies, academia and industry, was tasked with developing a system to detect and track Soviet submarines,

utilizing significant developments in acoustics research and related technologies.

What resulted was the development of the Integrated Underwater Surveillance System (IUSS), the fixed portion of which was called SOSUS, the giant series of listening arrays in the Atlantic and Pacific. Observations from these fixed and mobile arrays were highly integrated or fused with multi-source observational and intelligence data from satellites, ships, aircraft, humans, and other sensors over a wide

geographic area. This highly capable and integrated system eventually contributed

significantly to our winning the Cold War. Notable is (1) the definition of national

need, with a full understanding of the costs and benefits, (2) the commitment to development of a system, not just a collection of parts, and (3) the contribution of all

sectors, each bringing their own strengths to meeting a complex challenge. The resultant sixteen billion dollar investment was clearly justified. In the interest of demonstrating the effectiveness of our national will, I should also note that the SOSUS

arrays went from the blackboard in 1949 to full scale operation in 1952 . . . only

three years!
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I believe we are poised to undertake a similarly important, if not more complex,

task today, but we need your assistance. We need the Congress to demand a strategic plan for a comprehensive ocean observing system. The Congress should request

that the National Ocean Research Leadership Council, consisting of the leaders of

each of the nine Federal ocean research agencies, develop such a plan, defining components, priorities and resource requirements. This plan should show how an integrated system would optimize the Federal effort to meet specific objectives on a specific timeline, making clear the products and benefits expected. The plan should also

address the involvement of other maritime nations, where we have mutual objectives and can share equitably in the investment. And this plan should build upon

the volumes of well thought-out agendas developed by the individual agencies, National Academy of Sciences and nations in years past. Mr. Chairman, this will certainly require coordination of the Congress and Administration to make the proper

resources available.

From such a plan, we can finally begin to realize the many benefits of ocean

science that we just talked about today. On the horizon, we can envision greatly enhanced coastal weather forecasting and longer term climate forecasting, more efficient shipping, and more informed decision-making for difficult environmental and

resource management questions, just to name a few benefits.

The timing for such an initiative will never be better. Because of the recent El

Nin ́ o event and the oncoming La Nin ́ a, the U.S. public sees daily the value of our

current ocean observational capabilities. But those who rely on the products of ocean

science—State governments, many industries, the educational community to name

a few—are clamoring for more comprehensive data and more advanced products.

For the last 50 years of this century, we devoted our national attention on space,

and properly so. We need to focus our attention in the first 50 years of the next

century to understanding how the oceans can assist mankind in meeting its burgeoning challenges.

The Congress has already set in place a perfect mechanism for implementation

of this kind of initiative by creating the National Oceanographic Partnership Program. This program provides a platform for collaborative work by the ocean research agencies, bringing together the best minds in academia, industry and the

Federal laboratories.

In closing, I want to thank you again for holding this hearing. Your continued

leadership, Mr. Chairman, and the interest of this Subcommittee is sincerely appreciated by the oceanographic research community. I hope that you will consider my

recommendations and I look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure we

are doing everything we can to make wise use of our greatest natural resource.
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