13 



in a way since France has an ongoing tradition of national support 

 for underwater research and exploration and for the underlying 

 technology. That is on a national scale as well as through commer- 

 cial means. 



Recently, our tradition in these matters has been one of tragic 

 indifference. There is little doubt that the oceans are in trouble in 

 ways that are economically and environmentally damaging. Con- 

 cerns range from the decline and destruction of once thriving fish- 

 eries that this committee has no doubt heard much about to the 

 decline and destruction of entire ecosystems such as coral reefs and 

 productive seagrass meadows in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. 

 What are the consequences of deep sea dumping and how do ocean 

 ecosystems respond to oil spills, trash, toxic chemicals? What can 

 we do to restore damaged areas underwater? And how can places 

 in good condition such as the National Marine Sanctuaries that 

 were described by Dr. Bright — how can these be evaluated and how 

 do we understand them and then protect them effectively consider- 

 ing that these are, in fact, three-dimensional realms? By what 

 means can the nation's overall ocean assets be assessed? 



Knowledge gained through the National Underwater Research 

 Program can help, but to do so, this program needs help. I am 

 among a growing constituency including a great many creatures in 

 the ocean who cannot speak for themselves who sincerely hope 

 that you will act. You know the motto of those of us who are en- 

 thusiastic about support for NURP — "As we look skyward and sup- 

 port our efforts in space, at the same time, onward and down- 

 ward." Thank you. 



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

 the hearing.] 



Mr. Ortiz. Thank you, Dr. Earle, for your very enlightening and 

 interesting testimony. Now we will hear from Dr. Fox. Doctor, you 

 can proceed. 



STATEMENT OF PAUL JEFF FOX, UNIVERSITY-NATIONAL OCEAN- 

 OGRAPHIC LABORATORY SYSTEM, UNIVERSITY OF RHODE 

 ISLAND 



Dr. Fox. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommit- 

 tee, a pleasure to be here. I speak to you today on behalf of the 

 deep submergence science community. By deep submergence I 

 mean those of us that conduct research in water depths in excess of 

 1,000 meters, and I speak to you in my capacity as Chair of the 

 Deep Submergence Science Committee. 



I will just touch upon subjects brought up in my written testimo- 

 ny in the interest of time, and in so doing, I will point out where I 

 think NURP has made a substantial contribution to our efforts in 

 the abyss. 



If we for a moment could pretend that we were aliens orbiting 

 this planet and before us was the question how to assess its proper- 

 ties, I don't think it would take an intellectual greyhound to 

 decide, if we only had one probe to make, that this probe would be 

 designed to investigate our ocean. 70 percent of the earth's surface 

 is covered by water. You can assess the properties of the continents 



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