This Year of the Ocean document was prepared as a background discussion paper and does not necessarily reflect the policies of the U.S. Government or the U.S. Government agencies that participated in its preparation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The ocean remains as one of Earth’s last unexplored frontiers. It has stirred our imaginations over the millennia and has lead to the discovery of new lands, immense deposits and reservoirs of resources, and startling scientific findings. The presence of the human eye and the human ability to sample and to conduct experiments from the coastal regions to the deep ocean abyss has provided answers to questions on such critical issues as global change, waste disposal, mineral deposits, and the creation of life itself. In spite of the development of new technologies, comparatively little of the ocean has been studied. The leadership role of the United States has been eroded by a gradual decrease in funding support in spite of public opinion polls that indicate that ocean exploration is more important than space studies. As exciting and enlightening as ocean discoveries have been, they will likely pale in comparison to future discoveries.

The ocean stirs the imagination. Covering more than 70 percent of the surface of the earth, the ocean’s beauty and power has long been a source of awe as well as suspicion for many cultures. Legends were developed to help explain both the ocean and our own existence. The Greeks named Poseidon the god of the sea to help protect their seafarers and fishermen. The Eskimos told the story of a sea goddess Sedna, whose lost fingers filled the oceans with marine fish and mammals. In pursuit of meaning¾ both material and spiritual¾ many cultures have turned to the sea for inspiration as well as survival. Although few explorers discovered the riches they initially sought, they found not only new lands, but also unexpected, bizarre, and dazzling deep-sea creatures inhabiting an alien world.

Within the past few decades, ocean explorers have uncovered evidence of plate tectonics. These are global geological processes fundamental to the basic understanding of the Earth upon which we live. As exciting and promising as discoveries such as these have been, however, they may pale in comparison to what future exploration may uncover. It must again be noted that these discoveries, some of which shake the very foundations of centuries old beliefs about the basic nature of the Earth, are very recent. As a result of the tools now becoming available, the pace of discovery is escalating rapidly. In the past 25 years, mankind has learned more about the ocean and what lies beneath its surface than had been learned throughout all of previous human history.

The ocean was a highway for early explorers. As early as 2000 B.C., Phoenicians sailed the waters of the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. There is some evidence Phoenicians even ventured beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. Scandinavian sailors apparently reached North America around 1000 A.D. During the period 1492-1522, known in the culture of the Western world as the Age of Discovery, mankind began to fully realize the vastness of the earth’s water- covered surface. During this period, the world was first circumnavigated, North and South America were discovered, and human cultures began to develop a modern view of geography.

Following this period, exploration became a tool of empire-building for European nations, and was often associated with the pursuit of scientific interests . Between 1772 and 1779, Captain James Cook made several extraordinary voyages that added greatly to the scientific understanding of the ocean, geography, and anthropology. In addition to discovering Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii, he sampled subsurface temperatures, measured winds and currents, conducted soundings, and collected important data on coral reefs.

The earliest successful explorers of the deep ocean were Sir John Ross and Sir James Clark Ross. In 1817 off Baffin Bay, Canada, Sir John collected samples of bottom dwelling organisms including starfish and worms from a depth of 1.8 km. Sir James conducted soundings with a 7-km line during several voyages to the Antarctic from 1839-1843. Their results spurred scientific interest in deep-sea life. In the mid-19th century, scientific exploration of deep waters was further encouraged by the Azoic Theory of Edward Forbes, which held that life did not and could not exist below about 300 fathoms (1,800 ft). The desire to test this hypothesis has led to further exploration until, eventually, no depth has been completely unstudied.

The history of oceanography and deep-sea research has been one of cyclic fluctuations, each cycle involving more sophisticated research as it builds on previous knowledge. These research cycles have always included significant government support, because oceanographic research is very expensive, requires long-term commitments of personnel and assets, and does not necessarily provide information that can be of immediate or specific commercial use.

Modern oceanography can be considered to have started with the voyage of HMS Porcupine in 1869. However, it is the voyage of HMS Challenger (1872-1876) that is most famous. In both cases, these expeditions were made possible because of government support for exploration and scientific research. During the 127,500-km voyage, the Challenger scientists plotted the first systematic contour lines of ocean basins, currents, and temperatures. Although they labored under conditions much more primitive than those of modern oceanographers, they obtained some remarkable information, including a depth measurement of over 8,000 meters in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.. This measurement was made using piano wire for a sounding line. The Azoic theory was subsequently rejected; abundant life occurred at most depths. More than 4700 new species were collected with nets and bottom dredges.

World War II provided another set of strong reasons for developing a better understanding of the seas. While wars fought at sea were not new, what was new was a major thrust by maritime powers to understand the medium they were using as a battleground in order to improve their fighting and defense capabilities. Thus the U.S. Navy, as well as navies of other developed nations, devoted sizable resources to understanding the oceans and to developing capabilities to improve this understanding. Wartime requirements resulted in improved oceanographic instrumentation, surface and bottom charts, long-range weather prediction, submarine detection equipment and an enhanced understanding of underwater sound.

The past 50 years have seen milestone developments in technologies and capabilities that have greatly contributed to oceanography. Some of these include research submersibles, satellites, sonar technology, surface platforms and, or course, the computer.

Humans first explored the ocean by directly observing it or by placing samplers and instruments into the sea from their ships. These techniques were limited by the relatively shallow depths then attainable by humans and the relative opaqueness of the sea. Light is rapidly absorbed by sea water, making visibility with conventional techniques virtually impossible beyond shallow depths. Sunlight doesn’t penetrate below 300 meters, and relatively few places in the ocean have visibility greater than 30 meters. Thus, observations from the surface are severely limited as are observations by divers alone. In recent years, however, capabilities for ocean exploration have been greatly enhanced by major technological developments that enable seeing far beneath the waves to the seafloor itself.

Although there had been attempts even in antiquity to work underwater, humans had never been able to penetrate very far into the depths until the 1930s. It was then that William Beebe, an American ichthyologist, succeeded in reaching a depth of 1,000 meters in his "bathysphere," and providing exciting reports (by live radio broadcast) of life at those depths. Although there were many limitations to his diving platform, Beebe was overwhelmed by the chance to observe marine life in its own environment. A quarter century later, the bathyscaphe Trieste took two men to a depth of 35,800 ft, the deepest spot in the ocean, the Mariana Trench near Guam, in the western Pacific. Although the Trieste lacked manipulators or samplers, it allowed unprecedented observations from the water surface down to the benthos (organisms that live on or in the ocean bottom) and provided a tantalizing glimpse of future discoveries.

Even when wearing diving gear, humans are limited to relatively shallow depths and short periods of submergence. SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), invented in 1943 by French naval engineers Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan, allows excursions to well below 100 feet for significant durations. The ability to live and work underwater has been greatly expanded through advances in diving physiology and technology. Through the use of saturation diving, scientists can live under the sea in "Aquarius," the only undersea habitat devoted to scientific research. (Aquarius is currently located at the base of a South Florida coral reef.) Through techniques such as saturation and mixed-gas diving, scientists can extend their underwater depth and time limits. Yet, while SCUBA has allowed millions of people to become undersea explorers, it still only allows humans the ability to spend relatively short times at comparatively shallow depths.

The development of the occupied research submersible from the late 1950s to the present allows scientists and explorers access to undersea depths of up to 6,500 m (21,326 ft), although most submersibles have much shallower diving capabilities (300 m to 3,000 m). Modern research submersibles generally have manipulators, lighting, cameras, and sensors allowing detailed observations and experiments. Among the most notable submersible discoveries have been the finding of chemosynthetic life at hydrothermal vents, studies of undersea volcanoes and their eruptions, and hundreds of previously unknown species of deep-sea animals. Worldwide, an estimated 1,000 submersible dives per year have taken place since 1970.

Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which are tethered, unoccupied robots, have been highly developed and provide some significant advantages over occupied submersibles. They have almost unlimited bottom time, their damage or loss endangers no human lives, and their telepresence capability allows a broader audience to be "present." Vehicles range from the small and portable, capable of working at only a few tens of meters, to the large and somewhat cumbersome (11,000 pounds), capable of working at 10,000 meters while carrying many different sensors and tools. Since the early 1970s, more than a 1,000 ROVs have been placed into service worldwide in support of various tasks including oil exploration and operations, offshore development, and undersea research. In 1966, an ROV was used to find a hydrogen bomb lost at sea after an accident off the coast of Palomares, Spain. Using the ROV Kaiko, Japanese scientists revisited the Mariana Trench in 1995 and documented observations of shrimp, a scale worm, and a sea cucumber at 10,911 m (35,800 ft).

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have been recently developed to augment occupied submersibles and ROVs as exploration vehicles. Most of the AUVs now in service are experimental test platforms, although several have been used for scientific purposes. Because AUVs are untethered they can have a much greater horizontal excursion capability than an ROV. Long-range AUVs are currently limited by the lack of cost-effective power supplies. Nevertheless, the future for computer-guided, unoccupied, untethered vehicles appears promising.

Technological advances notwithstanding, humans are still an important part of exploration. Divers are better at working around delicate undersea communities and archeological excavation sites than are robots, and trained observers remain the best detectors of many phenomena, i.e., they do not need to be programmed to identify unexpected discoveries.

Acoustic technology, including sonar (sound navigation and ranging), has become an essential tool for marine exploration. Sound penetrates the ocean much as light penetrates the atmosphere. Sound is carried through water much more readily than it is through air; depending upon frequency, volume, and water characteristics, sounds can be heard thousands of kilometers from their origin. Acoustic technologies are used to explore the distribution of animals in the water, the nature of the sea bottom, to locate objects, discover natural resources, provide undersea navigation, detect submarines, and to improve our understanding of the nature of the ocean itself . With the development of side scan sonars and deep towed echo sounders in the 1960s, detailed sea bottom mapping, which is essential to understanding plate tectonics and other geological processes, has become possible. The recent marriage of computers with acoustic technologies has resulted in the introduction of mapping systems that can provide wide area images of the seabed in real time.

With the end of the Cold War, declassified technologies and resources developed for military purposes have become available to civilians. Among these major resources are formerly classified military oceanographic data, deep-sea submersibles, nuclear submarines, and the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS), a listening system developed for submarine detection and location. The availability of these resources has had a significant impact on ocean exploration. A cooperative agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Navy provides access for civilians to Navy deep submersibles and ROVs, allowing exploration and research to 6,000 m below the surface. Several scientific cruises to the Arctic Ocean using the Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines have been made since 1993. These missions have demonstrated the utility of such vessels for oceanographic and geophysical studies of polar oceans. Another dual-use application known as acoustic thermometry uses listening systems to measure whether the ocean is cooling or warming by measuring the speed of sound transmission between two fixed points. Data such as this can provide evidence concerning the status of global climate change. Other cooperative uses for U.S. Navy vessels include mapping and seismic exploration of the ocean floor, tracking and study of whales, retrieval of environmental information from remote instrumented buoys and observatories, and enforcement of fishing regulations.

Remote sensing technologies, such as satellites and radar, are relative newcomers to the toolbox of the ocean explorer. They are capable of providing synoptic information over large surface areas¾ information previously unobtainable from surface-based platforms such as ships and buoys. Pictures from satellites orbiting the earth provide some of the most valuable¾ and often, unexpected¾ information about the ocean. Recently, a satellite found what may be the world’s second largest lake beneath Antarctica’s thick icecap. Data released within the past year shows the Pacific Ocean may contain more than 50 percent more seamounts than previously thought. This means that more than 25,000 undersea volcanos taller than 1 km are largely unknown and remain uncharted because of sparse bathymetric coverage. (Seamounts are submarine volcanos that can provide information about geological history. Because they often support highly diverse and abundant marine life, they may also provide significant new fishing grounds.) Finally, satellite images can be used to follow pollution discharged from rivers into the sea, locate coral reefs and provide information on their health, measure heat flow from the sea surface, and study the effects of wind and tides on the transportation of sediments. A myriad of possible applications abound.

Oceans continue to arouse some of our most noble and basic instincts. In just a few short decades, research has opened doors to ocean exploration and exploitation that our ancestors could only have imagined. The seas have much to offer of economic importance. Some resources like fisheries and mineral resources are well recognized today. Others offer promise for the future.

Marine mineral resources are extensive and (in deeper waters) poorly known. The exploitation of these resources will require an expansion of geological knowledge in order to locate them. If severe damage to the seas is to be avoided, it will also require a better understanding of the ecosystems with which these mineral resources are associated and the development of technology to extract them without causing significant damage.

Oil use has increased dramatically in recent times, and the seabed holds unexploited reserves. The ocean also has deposits of gravel, sand, manganese crusts and nodules, tin, gold, and diamonds. Many of these deposits are located in coastal areas where potential environmental problems associated with their exploitation may be so serious that they cannot now be mined in a responsible manner. Many of the mineral deposits about which little is known occur in the deep ocean on underwater volcanos and ocean ridges, or on the flanks of the more than 50,000 seamounts in the Pacific Ocean.

Perhaps more important than the search for minerals is the search for medications. Marine plants and animals have biotechnological potential in the treatment of a wide variety of human illnesses. Coral reefs, sometimes denoted as the rainforests of the sea, contain novel chemicals that can be used to fight cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and other diseases. Since the discovery of penicillin in mold more than 60 years ago, scientists have looked for potential drugs in soil microbes, and more recently, in marine microbes. While chemicals from land-based plants and microbial fermentation are on the decline, scientists have barely scratched the surface of the sea’s molecular potential.

"Extremophiles", micro-organisms with the ability to thrive in extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents, hold promise for genetically based medications and industrial chemicals and processes. Their unique enzymes, called "extremozymes," enable them to function in such forbidding environments. Last year, the biomedical industry was foremost among industries worldwide which spent more than $2.5 billion searching for potentially useful enzymes. The newest frontiers for this search are the extreme ocean environments.

Some of the most critical exploration is happening closer to home in the shallow waters that surround us. While likely to have been unnoticed at the surface, scientists are working just below the waves to understand the coastal ocean and how human populations interact with it. An example is the underwater observatory, LEO-15, located in 15 meters of water just 10 km off the coast of Atlantic City. Using it, scientists can study estuaries and coastal waters, which are nursery grounds for some of the most important commercial fisheries, now under stress. The disposal of agricultural, industrial, and domestic waste, pressures from overfishing, and shipping are putting the coastal ocean at risk. Scientists are studying the effects of coastal development and the natural processes that circulate material from land into rivers, bays, lakes, and the ocean to determine the fate of contaminants in the environment, the critical role that chemical constituents play in the production of organic matter, and their impact on marine life. For example, scientists are trying to determine what changes in the environment, both natural and man-made, might be promoting the expansion of harmful algal blooms, the demise of coral reefs, the loss of fisheries, global warming, and other problems. Developments in the understanding of ocean chemistry, which are enhanced by rapid advancements in technology such as using molecular techniques to screen seawater samples for microbial populations, mean that researchers may eventually be able to forecast events in the coastal ocean, just the weather can be forecast now.

Perhaps the ocean’s greatest unappreciated potential for humans has little to do with new medicines and products, oil, gold, or food. It is the chance to ponder, explore, and enjoy this realm. Recreational activities along waterfront communities such as clamming, crabbing, fishing, swimming, and iceboating are cultural traditions that have been handed down from one generation to another. Surfing is not a recent phenomenon , but a 1,000 year old tradition born in Hawaii. Water skiing, invented in the French Alps by a group of soldiers skilled at skiing the Alps, now has enthusiasts worldwide. Since the invention of the aqualung, millions of SCUBA divers have been given access to the earth’s last frontier. Tourist submarines operating at more than 18 sites around the world for the past decade have carried more than six million passengers. Each participant considers himself to be an ocean explorer.

Exploring and improving our understanding of the ocean and its influence on global events are among the most important challenges today. With the approach of the next millennium, the Earth’s ocean and the underlying seabed remain one of our planet’s last frontiers. What lies ahead? Clues can be found in recent trends:

• The United States is no longer the principal nation with interests and capabilities in exploring the oceans.

• An end to the Cold War and cutbacks in defense spending have decreased development of new ocean technologies.

• The need for manned presence under the sea is decreasing.

• The high cost of working in the oceans is forging partnerships between organizations that have not traditionally worked together.

Exploration of new ocean frontiers holds the promise to enhance the future of the United States in a myriad of ways, and continued support for this endeavor is considered a vital national need (Undersea Vehicles and National Needs, 1996, National Research Council). How might this be accomplished? Japan has now taken the definitive lead in development of undersea capabilities. If the United States wants to retain its status in undersea science, a longer term commitment to support of ocean science and exploration is necessary. Some of the issues that need to be addressed are :

• Government support has always been critical for oceanographic research. The United States cannot maintain its expertise in ocean research unless and until adequate support is provided. Since the early 1980s, funding for ocean sciences, as a percentage of the total U.S. federal basic research base, has been reduced by nearly half.

• As responsible stewards of the environment, ocean exploration must be recognized as an important role within the missions of U.S. agencies charged with ocean-related responsibilities.

• A plan for undersea research that includes better access to assets, refinement and integration of existing systems, development of a strategic plan for future needs, and stable multi-year funding for ocean exploration is needed.

• The oceanographic community must capture the public’s attention and imagination. While many space satellites have been launched, nothing comparable can be proclaimed for the ocean. Plans have been proposed for the first attempt of a self-powered autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) to voyage between North America and Europe this year. Properly promoted, this AUV project could raise general public awareness about the value of marine exploration, and foster continued public interest and support.

• Teaching children about the wonder and science of the ocean may be the best investment for the future. In this new age of science and education technology, students can exchange the confines of the classroom and traditional textbooks for hands-on discovery and real time learning. In 1996, internet history was made when the only undersea laboratory devoted to science became the world’s first underwater website. More than two million students had a virtual porthole via video screens to swim with sharks and reef fish, submerge in a nuclear submarine, and live in the underwater habitat Aquarius. This effort, which was part of the Jason Project, transported students via satellite to remote sites where scientists are engaged in research, enabling them to directly observe ongoing investigations of the biological and geological development of Earth. Other innovative examples exist for bringing the ocean into the classroom. Rutgers University has partnered with a number of other organizations to begin a program in New Jersey this past year using the underwater observatory, LEO-15. More innovative approaches such as these are needed to assure the next generation will be well informed stewards and explorers of the ocean.

Fantastic voyages to the planet’s inner space are happening close to home in the waters that surround us, and are reminders that the ocean is still brimming with life that scientists are only just discovering. The ocean has been navigated for thousands of years, but exploration of the deepest parts of the ocean is just beginning.

Public opinion polls indicate that Americans care strongly about the ocean and are prepared to support ocean exploration over space exploration. According to a recent survey, eighty percent say that the condition of the ocean is a matter of personal importance. A full 55 percent give priority to funding ocean exploration over space exploration. The survey participants, nearly three quarters (72 percent), also see the health of the ocean as intimately connected to the future well-being of humankind.

Ocean exploration gives mankind a sense of human progress and heritage. It provides the experience and knowledge necessary to undertake stewardship of the ocean and its resources, and thus sets a course for future generations to navigate. What lies ahead is still unknown. Whatever it is, however, will be influenced by what is found through tomorrow’s exploration¾ and, will likely be different than today’s predictions!

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