46 



But I think it is pretty crazy when I have to look at the Army 

 Corps of Engineers, LIDAR, which has been built in Canada, whicn 

 is being flown around by NOAA this summer, and have to stand, 

 like, 10th in line to get to use this. 



Because in Australia, using laser from an air platform to find 

 fish and determine their biomass and to use a spectral scanner like 

 Dr. Gary Borstat is in Canada to determine the health of the 

 plankton and phytoplankton on the ocean, if you are a marine biol- 

 ogist or an oceanographer you can gather a whole lot more data for 

 less cost per man-hour from space than you can from ships, sir. 



I have got 10 180-foot boats. We know how much it costs to run 

 boats, and you are right, the NOAA fleet needs to be modernized. 



But one of the other Senators asked a very, very important ques- 

 tion, and the question was, What is the priorities on the dry side 

 versus what is the priorities on the wet side? 



Well, you know, I do not know how many jobs, the Weather Serv- 

 ice is going to create — but I know one thing, you ask the very im- 

 portant question, why these Japanese and Europeans — and believe 

 me, they are spending just as much — why they are after this. This 

 is the answer. This is new jobs, this is new technology. 



There used to be conferences at MIT, and I think Senator Pell 

 will remember these, and they were called Food and Drug from the 

 Seas. Food and Drug from the Seas, and they had a conference 

 every year on it, and people identified — I mean, like Ray Parris, 

 and the marine collagen s, there were hundreds of really bright and 

 exciting ideas that were brought out that the group in Boston 

 would kind of get together and they would come up with all these 

 things. 



They never went anywhere, but all of this information has not 

 disappeared. All of these seeds which we planted, all of the work 

 which was done by Sea Grants, unfortunately a lot of it goes over- 

 seas. Students come over here and they are sitting in the Pell Li- 

 brary and vacuuming up all of this information. 



They go back home, and they get their governments and their in- 

 dustries committed toward process in these areas, whether it be 

 aquaculture or biomaterials or chitins or any of the things that 

 have been mentioned by the people at MBL. This is a very promis- 

 ing area. 



Senator Kerry. Can you, without exaggeration and without 

 reaching too far, give me a sense of the economic value of what you 

 are holding in your hand, if we were to really deal with it and 

 move forward? 



Mr. SlLVA. I think this oil will find its way, I hope — my only hope 

 is that this oil finds its way into every chicken in the United 

 States. That is all. I mean, it is not simply profit because there are 

 a lot of children out there. You know, God was good to me. There 

 are a lot of children out there that cannot afford $6 a pound floun- 

 der, $6 a pound scallops. 



How are you going to get the benefits of the omega fatty acids 

 into their diets? That is the question that they are asking over at 

 the National Institutes of Health right now. How are you going to 

 get them the benefits of eating seafood? We control this bioresource 

 within our 200-mile limit, but we are not using its full potential. 



Senator KERRY. What do you think is the economic value of that? 



