WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF
RICHARD W. SPINRAD,
Ph.D.
ASSISTANT
ADMINSTRATOR
OFFICE OF OCEANIC AND
ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND
ATMOSPHERIC ADMISTRATION
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
COMMERCE
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITEE ON FISHERIES aND OCEANS
COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE
MAY 4, 2006
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to discuss H.R.
3835 and the role of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) in ocean exploration and undersea research.
I am
Richard W. Spinrad, Ph.D., Assistant Administrator of NOAA’s Office of Oceanic
and Atmospheric Research. I was also a
participant in the Presidential Panel for Ocean Exploration, which made
recommendations to the President on ocean exploration in 2000. The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
conducts the scientific research, environmental studies, and technology
development needed to improve NOAA’s operations and broaden our understanding
of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.
NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and National Undersea Research
Program are contained within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research. The Office of Ocean
Exploration is NOAA's center for new activities to explore and better
understand our oceans. The National
Undersea Research Program currently supports NOAA’s mission by providing undersea
scientists with the advanced technology, such as submersibles and remotely
operated vehicles, and expertise needed to work in the undersea environment.
I am
pleased to be here today to discuss H.R. 3835, an act to establish a
coordinated national ocean exploration program within NOAA. NOAA supports the intent of this
legislation. Title I of the bill
addresses ocean exploration; Title II addresses NOAA’s complementary program in
undersea research. Together, these two
programs provide a solid foundation for the aggressive ocean exploration and
undersea technology program for our Nation.
Today, I will outline our current ocean exploration and undersea research
programs, describe our planned merger of these programs, and explain why this
legislation is important to NOAA.
In his preface to the President’s Panel on Ocean Exploration
report in 2000, former Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta eloquently stated the
importance of ocean exploration to our Nation’s interests and future:
“Our nation’s history,
from colonization and westward expansion to the deployment of the Hubble telescope,
is testament to the fact that America
is a country of explorers. Our pride as a nation is founded upon our yearning
to make new discoveries and to seek out new knowledge. Exploration of the
oceans responds to a growing national interest in our seas and an
acknowledgement of their importance to our environment and quality of life.
We are growing in the awareness that the
ocean influences our daily lives in hundreds of ways. From providing fisheries resources or cures
for disease, to unlocking the secrets of long-term climate, we are constantly
reminded of the ocean’s importance in sustaining life. Truly, our economic, environmental,
and national security depend on our ability to understand the ocean frontier, as
well as balancing the competing interests of conservation and economics.”
Historical
Perspective
National
interest in establishing a comprehensive ocean exploration program stretches
back over 40 years. In the late 1960’s,
the Stratton Commission, in addition to providing the recommendation upon which
the formation of NOAA was based, also initiated the International Decade of
Ocean Exploration. The resulting
programs dramatically enhanced understanding of the global climate system,
geochemical cycling, ocean circulation, plate geodynamics, and life in extreme
environments. Later in 1983, an
interagency effort to comprehensively map the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ)
was initiated. Reconnaissance and low
resolution surveys of much of the EEZ were conducted up through 1990.
This
initial national interest in ocean exploration increased in 2000, when a Presidential
Panel on Ocean Exploration convened by the Department of Commerce, called for a
robust national ocean exploration program propelled by the spirit of discovery.
The panel proposed a strategy of interdisciplinary
expeditions, new partnerships, and integrated federal programs to characterize
the vast array of biological, physical, and chemical environments of the oceans
and foster the development of technology. These recommendations led to the establishment
of the Office of Ocean Exploration within NOAA in 2001. In 2003, a National Research Council report
reiterated the need for a comprehensive national ocean exploration program
strongly linked to traditional research, with broad international partnerships,
and a commitment to educational opportunities. This report was followed in 2004, by the U.S. Commission
on Ocean Policy recommendation to establish an expanded ocean exploration
program. In response to the report of
the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, the Administration developed the U.S. Ocean Action Plan. Ocean exploration will be addressed in the
context of the Ocean Research Priorities Plan, currently under development,
which was called for as part of the U.S. Ocean Action Plan.
The Office of
Ocean Exploration
The recent
sustained national interest in ocean exploration has resulted in an exciting,
successful ocean exploration program within NOAA. The mission of this program is to conduct
interdisciplinary ocean exploration that provides scientific information as
well as technical and educational leadership that contributes to NOAA’s
evolving environmental and economic missions. The program pursues this
mission by focusing on four key goals:
Explore unknown and poorly known areas of the ocean: Exploration
science expands our understanding of what resources and processes are in the
oceans. The wealth of living and
non-living resources yet to be discovered holds vast untapped economic
potential and offers new opportunities for medical science. For example, microbial organisms that thrive
in deep-sea environments produce novel enzymes and other compounds as a
consequence of living in extremes of temperature and chemistry which have
significant potential for creating bioproducts for use in pharmaceutical and
industrial applications. Recent
screenings show that these marine samples are 20 times more active than their
terrestrial counterparts.
Ocean Mapping: Less than ten percent of the U.S. EEZ has been mapped with
current technology, and many resources, habitats, and features remain undiscovered.
Our ability to manage ecosystems is
dependent upon our ability to define the area these ecosystems cover. In conjunction with other NOAA mapping
efforts, ocean exploration routinely maps ocean areas during expeditions to
discover and record the physical, biological, geological, archaeological, and
chemical nature of the oceans.
This
information is critical for both expanding our understanding of the U.S. EEZ,
and supporting future establishment of the U.S. continental shelf, where
potential resources such as mineral deposits,
valued at $1.3 trillion, are estimated to exist.
New
Technology: The Office of Ocean Exploration
invests in new technologies for ocean discovery and to enhance the technical
capability of the U.S.
by promoting the development of improved oceanographic research, communication,
navigation, and data collection systems, as well as underwater platforms and
sensors. The program coordinates new
technology needs and investments with other NOAA programs and other federal
agencies through the National Oceanographic Partnership Program. A merger of NOAA’s ocean exploration program
and undersea research program, which I will discuss later, will enhance NOAA’s ability
to support emerging technology in these areas.
Education
and Outreach: The President’s Ocean
Action Plan calls for promoting lifelong ocean education as essential for
fostering a strong economy, promoting healthy ecosystems and preparing a
competitive workforce with the scientific understanding needed to balance the
sustainable use and conservation of our natural resources. The ocean exploration program is a leader in
this effort dedicating 10 percent of its budget to education and outreach to improve ocean literacy in the U.S. and to stimulate interest in
ocean science by bringing the excitement of ocean exploration to teachers and
school children. The program’s
website (www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov)
is rated in the top five worldwide in its category, by a major international
science education authority. This
website, which includes teaching materials for educators, daily logs of expeditions,
immediate reports of the discoveries, and live images of the sea floor, was
visited by more than four million people last year. These efforts are inspiring a whole new
generation to explore and work in the oceans which will help ensure that in the
future the U.S.
will have a competitive edge in the oceans and remain a global leader in ocean
science and technology.
In
less than five years, the Office of Ocean Exploration has been able to successfully
leverage federal funding, equipment, and expertise to assemble
multidisciplinary teams of scientist-explorers in support of more than 100
ocean expeditions and projects to poorly known areas of the ocean. These ocean expeditions have discovered
many new marine ecosystems (including essential fish and coral habitats); new
species of micro and macro-organisms; and chemical and geological processes
that impact the oceans such as large quantities of carbon dioxide produced by
underwater volcanoes. These expeditions
have also mapped thousands of square kilometers of ocean floor that had never
been mapped before, and, in so doing, discovered new landforms, including large
submarine volcanoes.
NOAA’s partnerships with academia, industry, ocean institutions
and scientists from U.S.
and international organizations are a vital component of NOAA’s ocean
exploration program. Together with our
partners, NOAA increases our national understanding of ocean systems and
processes by undertaking 6 to 10 major voyages of discovery per year and funding
up to 25 additional missions and exploration-related projects per year. All expeditions are selected through a rigorous
peer-reviewed process. The program spends
approximately seventy percent of its funds outside of NOAA on science that benefits
NOAA’s understanding of the oceans and ecosystems.
Programs
across NOAA benefit from new sources and scales of information generated by the
Office of Ocean Exploration. These
benefits include greater knowledge of living marine resources, their habitats,
and ecosystems which enhance fisheries and ocean stewardship and comprehensive
site surveys and inventories that inform management of NOAA’s National Marine
Sanctuaries. The program’s characterization
of the EEZ improves the management of habitat and marine resources, and by
providing inventories of our Nation’s submerged cultural and historical
resources, the Office of Ocean Exploration aids in the preservation of this
heritage. The Office of Ocean Exploration
also provides important governance and scientific investigation in support of
the international Census of Marine Life which is helping to identify important
breeding areas and inform strategies for sustainable management.
The
Office of Ocean Exploration’s efforts are, in turn, supported by other programs
within NOAA including the National
Geophysical Data
Center which provides
vital data access, archive, and assessment support. NOAA has also assembled a team of data and
information experts from its National Oceanographic Data
Center, the National Coastal
Data Development
Center, and the NOAA
Library to ensure the broadest public access and use of the results from its
ocean expeditions. This team has developed procedures for ensuring archival
and public access to the variety of the data products generated on these
expeditions including underwater video which has become an important new source
for quantitative data about the ocean environment, as well as for stimulating
public interest and life-long learning.
We will see more opportunity for learning and discovery
through ocean exploration when a new vessel dedicated to ocean exploration
joins the NOAA fleet. After conversion, a
former Navy vessel will be commissioned and named NOAA vessel Okeanos
Explorer. The vessel will be available in late 2007 or
early 2008 to serve the Nation as a premier
ocean research platform to conduct critical deep-sea missions including ocean
floor mapping and biological and chemical oceanographic research.
The vessel will also be equipped for “telepresence”,
a communications technology that allows shore-side scientists, teachers, and
students to connect in near real-time with scientists at sea and to view images
from the ocean and seafloor using high-speed internet and satellites. The near real-time data and images are
transmitted to science command centers ashore where teams of scientists augment
the work of scientists and explorers at sea.
By bringing multiple high-quality video streams and sensor data from the
remote seafloor to scientists, teachers, and students on shore, the potential exists
to revolutionize oceanographic research and ocean education. “Telepresence” technology was successfully
pioneered on a NOAA-sponsored expedition to the deep sea hydrothermal vent
field known as the "Lost
City" on the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge in July 2005.
NOAA’s ocean exploration program is a national program that provides
the opportunity of discovery to our partners in academia, federal and state
agencies, and industry. No other federal
dedicated source of funding or logistics exists for discovery-based ocean
science. The economic and social benefits
of discovery are significant and the promise of future discovery is clear;
wherever the program has looked, new discoveries and information have been found.
National Undersea Research Program
Title
II of H.R. 3835 addresses the National Undersea Research Program (NURP), which has
served NOAA and the Nation for over 25 years as an underwater research and
technology program. Placing scientists
underwater, either directly or remotely through the use of advanced
technologies, the program focuses its considerable expertise and connections to
the academic community on NOAA’s undersea research agenda. In recent years,
the program has functioned through a network of 6 regional centers and an
institute, hosted primarily by universities.
Two centers are located on the West Coast in Hawaii
and Alaska, and four are located on the East
Coast in North Carolina, New
Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida. The West Coast Centers have historically been
fully funded; however, the four East Coast centers experienced significant
budget reductions in FY 2006 that will impede their ability to support NOAA’s
mission if continued in FY 2007. I
request your support for the FY 2007 President’s Budget request, which would
fund the National Undersea Research Program at $9.152 million.
NURP has a proven record of providing the advanced
technologies and infrastructure necessary to support undersea operations for
both the academic community and NOAA. The
program’s established processes and regional structure have provided a
mechanism for enabling competitive, high-quality research to be directed at exploration
and undersea technology development as well as emerging management issues relating
to the oceans. Through ownership or
leasing, NURP has provided undersea systems that work from the coast to the
deep sea. For example:
·
NURP owns and operates the Aquarius, the world's
only underwater science laboratory, located in the Florida Keys National Marine
Sanctuary. Aquanauts live on and study
sensitive coral reef ecosystems threatened by natural and human-caused impacts
and are able to perform studies not possible through traditional diving
techniques.
·
NURP operates undersea remotely operated
vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous undersea vehicles (AUVs) that are controlled by
computers, battery powered, and independent of the surface. These vehicles increase the access of
researchers to the depth and breadth of the oceans.
·
NURP owns and operates the Pisces IV and V, human
occupied submersibles, which enable scientists to explore the deep ocean-depths
down to 4,500 meters (15,000 feet). In
partnership with the Office of Ocean Exploration in the summer of 2005, the Pisces
submersibles completed a historic expedition to the South Pacific where scientists
examined more than 20 previously unexplored sub-sea volcanic ecosystems. The program also provides scientists with
access to research submarines including the Alvin, Johnson Sea-Link, and Delta submersibles.
·
NURP, as the lead office for fulfilling NOAA’s
statutory responsibility to improve the safety and performance of civilian
divers, has supported advanced diving techniques which enable researchers to
explore and characterize little known habitats such as deep corals.
·
NURP supports new undersea techniques and
technologies which address emerging ocean exploration and undersea ocean
observing, sampling, monitoring and modeling issues for the National Ocean Service and the National
Marine Fisheries Service within NOAA.
In 2007, NOAA will further address the need for ocean
technology development by refocusing the priorities, direction, and
partnerships of its National Undersea Research Program and merging it with the
Office of Ocean Exploration as confirmed by Congress in 2005. The new ocean exploration and advanced
technology development program will enhance the nation’s capacity for ocean
exploration and research by directing the undersea research program’s efforts
towards undersea technology development and its application to ocean
exploration, research, and assessments.
In the long term, the restructured undersea research program
will build upon a strong East and West Coast presence and add elements incorporating
the expertise and remaining infrastructure preserved in FY 2006. The full details of the restructuring have
not yet been determined and will depend upon several factors including input
from the regional undersea research centers and the extramural community, opportunities
within the combined National Undersea Research Program and Office of Ocean
Exploration, and the amount of expertise and infrastructure preserved from the
undersea research program.
NOAA’s Views on H.R. 3835
NOAA supports the intent of this legislation to establish a coordinated
national ocean exploration program within NOAA. This legislation would elevate the importance
of science-based ocean exploration, and undersea technology development as a
vital national activity and strengthen federal efforts to pursue and support
it. H.R. 3835 recognizes the critical
components of NOAA’s current ocean exploration activities, including the
development of new undersea technologies, outreach, and education. As part of its responsibilities NOAA supports
the authorization of interdisciplinary exploration to expand our knowledge of
the ocean’s living and nonliving resources.
H.R. 3835 advances undersea technology development and
furthers support for undersea research and exploration by mandating that the
program “make available the infrastructure and expertise to service the
undersea science needs of the academic community.” The legislation supports two of the most
successful and unique aspects of the National Undersea Research Program: (1)
harnessing the nation’s extramural, academic expertise to provide solutions to
NOAA’s undersea challenges, and (2) conducting an open, competitive process for
allocation of resources. It also supports
the important program areas of undersea science-based education and outreach
programs to enrich ocean science education and public awareness, and the
discovery, study, and development of natural products from ocean and aquatic
systems.
We do recommend that the following change to the bill be
considered. While NOAA agrees with the
goal of Section 104, to promote coordination, such a statutory requirement is
unnecessary and would duplicate existing efforts. NOAA currently coordinates with other federal
agencies on ocean exploration activities and plans for the future. In addition, the coordination among federal
agencies mentioned in the bill will increase under the auspices of the new
National Science and Technology Council’s Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science
and Technology. The functions of the
Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology include identifying national
ocean science and technology priorities and facilitating the coordination of
interdisciplinary ocean research, ocean technology, and infrastructure
development.
Section 107 authorizes appropriations to carry out the National
Ocean Exploration Program in increasing amounts from $30,500,000 in fiscal year
2006 to $71,917,000 in fiscal year 2015, including $33,550,000 for fiscal year
2007. The Administration requests that
the authorization levels in the bill be consistent with the President's FY 2007
Budget Request, which provides $15,128,000 for the Ocean Exploration Program.
In light of the National Undersea Research Program
restructuring effort, the language of H.R. 3835 remains pertinent with few
changes. The purpose of the National Undersea Research
Program remains consistent with Title II of the Act, to “increase scientific
knowledge essential for the informed management, use and preservation of
oceanic, coastal and large lake resources through undersea research, exploration,
education and technology development.” However,
NOAA requests that particular named equipment not be enacted into law so that
the program can best maintain the flexibility required to meet rapidly changing
technological developments and needs.
Section 207 authorizes appropriations to carry out the
Undersea Research Program in increasing amounts from $12,500,000 in fiscal year
2006 to $29,474,000 in fiscal year 2015, including $13,750,000 in fiscal year
2007. The Administration requests that
the authorization levels in the bill be consistent with the President's FY 2007
Budget Request, which provides $9,152,000 for the National Undersea Research
Program in FY 2007. In addition, the
bill includes authorization language and authorization for appropriations for
the National Technology Institute. The
Administration requests this language be removed to remain consistent with the
President's Budget, which does not provide funding for the National Technology
Institute.
NOAA also notes that in Section 207, all funding is directed
to regional centers leaving no funding for administration of the program. Program administration should be provided,
with a cap of ten percent of appropriated amounts. NOAA supports an undersea research program
that is national in scope. The
Administration requests in the authorization of funding that no specific
percentage of funding be authorized to either the West Coast or East Coast Regional Centers.
This change would allow NOAA the
flexibility to address research and technology needs from a national
perspective covering our interests in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico,
and Great Lakes.
Conclusion
NOAA supports elevating the importance of ocean exploration based
on sound scientific research as a vital national activity and endorses the
strengthening of federal efforts to pursue and support it. H.R. 3835 recognizes the critical components
of NOAA’s current ocean exploration activities, including the development of
new undersea technologies, and outreach and education programs. We are encouraged that the House of
Representatives is considering this legislation to promote the importance of
ocean exploration, and maintain and strengthen our ability to generate new
ocean knowledge. The U.S.’s strength and leadership in
the oceans depends on our Nation’s ability to generate and harness the latest
in scientific and technological developments and to apply these developments to
real world applications such as the management of our coastal and marine
resources. A national ocean exploration
and undersea technology development program is vital to sustaining the
scientific advancement and innovation needed to maintain our Nation’s competitive
edge in ocean science and technology.