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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. It would be- impossible to 

 describe here the vast array of research accomplished or being conducted by the NURP Centers, 

 but the list is impressive and NURP is taking the lead in such research projects as; studies of the 

 106-mile dumpsite in the 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, in situ fisheries research 

 aimed at the management of important food species, studies of anthropogenic effects on the 

 Great Lakes and studies of deepsea geologic processes. Studies at my own Center include the 

 development of a low-cost, highly accurate technique for monitoring subsurface UV(B) using 

 pure DNA as a solar dosimeter. This allows the accurate prediction of damage to DNA by 

 UV( B) at any depth. Four years of study of the Queen conch are leading toward our ability to 

 enhance stocks in such places as the Florida Keys. This is important considering that the 

 International Commission on Trade in Endangered Species has recently declared the Queen 

 conch endangered. Studies on the recruitment processes of grouper, lobster and conch, as well 

 as other marine species, will eventually allow us to establish principles of predicting year-class 

 strengths essential to the management of the species based on sound scientific research. 



Mr. Chairman, NURP has matured over the years in terms of scientific capability, but is still 

 considered the stepchild of the Administration. As you know, if it were not for Congress, NURP 

 would have been gone long ago. Indeed, during the past ten years the Administration has zeroed 

 out NURP and Congress has appropriated the money to keep it alive and even allow it to 

 prosper. The Nation does not deserve an "invisible" National undersea program. We put 

 tremendous efforts and funding into the space program and basically ignored the importance of 

 the oceans and our own ability to explore its resources. As a National program NURP should be 

 supported not only by the Administration but with funding that reflects the needs of the Nation 

 to lead the wodd in undersea research and exploration. We are already falling far behind the 

 Japanese in this respect. In 1986, I served on an ad hoc undersea research study panel that 

 produced the report "New Directions for NOAA's Undersea Research Program" in which we 

 recommended that NURP's funding should be at $47,800,000 in 1993, including $25,000,000 for 

 construction of a 6-7000-meter submersible. The remaining operating budget would increase to 

 $40,800,000 by the year 2000 with the construction, between 1997 and 1999, of a 10,000-meter 

 submersible with a $75,000,000 price tag. This would give us the capability to go to the deepest 

 region of the oceans. 



The "National Undersea Research Program Act of 1992," introduced by the Merchant Marine 

 and Fisheries Committee and passed by the House last Congress, goes part of the way toward 

 achieving some of the authorization recommendations made by the undersea panel. The bill 

 authorized $20,000,000 for FY 1993 and $28,000,000 for FY 1997. I will discuss the rest of 

 NURP Act further into this testimony. 



As 1 mentioned before, NURP has not had the support of the previous Administration and this 

 past year has taken a 7% cut. The breakdown of the FY 1993 budget for NURP is as follows: 



North Carolina $3,570,000 



Hawaii $3,072,000 



Connecticut $2,478,220 



