17 



ommended also that there be a small undersea research program 

 which was called MUST. MUST lasted for a few years and then 

 was reorganized in 1980, as Dr. Ostenso explained before. The new 

 program, National Undersea Research Program, had at that time 

 four regional projects in Hawaii, North Carolina, California, and 

 the Virgin Islands. Connecticut was added in 1984, my own center 

 in 1986, Alaska in 1990, and New Jersey in 1991. With the closing 

 of the Virgin Island lab and the moving of California, there are 

 now six centers throughout the country. 



During NURP's tenure, the quality of research and researchers 

 have grown steadily, the science having evolved from mainly obser- 

 vational, natural history-type programs in the past to now sophisti- 

 cated studies and experimentation. Over 1,000 papers have been 

 published by NURP-supported projects over the past nine years. 

 Just to give you some statistics, in 1992 alone, NURP supported re- 

 search that involved over 8,000 scuba/nitrox dives, 706 submersible 

 dives, and 407 ROV dives. I will talk a little bit about the science 

 in a second. In addition to NOAA's research mission, each center 

 has developed its own research agenda that responds to regional 

 needs in its geographic region of responsibility. Sometimes these 

 overlap a bit, but in most cases, that works out very well. 



I can't even begin to list the accomplishments of the NURP Pro- 

 gram, but just to point out a few that NURP has taken the lead, is 

 studies of the 106-mile dumpsite in New York Bight, inspection of 

 deep oil and gas wells off the southeast coast and in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, monitoring of the health of coral reefs which are in bad 

 shape right now, in situ fisheries research that lead to manage- 

 ment of species, and deep sea geological processes. 



Studies at my own laboratory that I can speak a little bit more 

 about includes development of a low-cost system for measuring ul- 

 traviolet light underwater using DNA. There is very little expense, 

 costing just a few cents to get a measurement. We have four years 

 of study on the Queen conch which is a very important species 

 throughout the Caribbean and in Florida. It is now declared endan- 

 gered by the International Commission on Trade in Endangered 

 Species, and we are working toward enhancing these stocks. We 

 studied recruitment processes of grouper, conch, and lobster toward 

 the predicting year-class strengths essential to the management of 

 the species in the future. 



Mr. Chairman, NURP has matured quite a bit over the years in 

 terms of scientific capability, but it is still considered the stepchild 

 of the Administration. If it wasn't for Congress, NURP would not 

 exist right now. As you know, over the past 10 years or so, NURP 

 has been zeroed out, and Congress has put the money back in, al- 

 lowing NURP to not only survive but to prosper over the last 10 

 years. We don't believe that national undersea programs should be 

 an invisible one, and believe it should be supported by the Admin- 

 istration. We have high hopes that this may happen in the future. 

 But, in the meantime, we are still hopeful that Congress will 

 remain our friends as they have for so many years. 



I was on a panel several years ago in 1986 that produced the 

 report "New Directions for NOAA's Undersea Research" in which 

 we recommended fairly high appropriations, as well as to build two 

 systems, one, a 10,000 meter system that would go to the deepest 



