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30 years of my professional career beneath the sea exploring its 

 many wonders. And I would like to take the next few minutes that 

 I have to tell you about what I've seen and to try to guess what 

 I think the future might hold for us, given the clear fact of our con- 

 tinuing growth and the need of our peoples for more space and re- 

 sources. 



Despite our globe-trotting abilities, our species has not colonized 

 any new land masses on the planet since the colonization of the 

 new world, which began in the 15th century. 



Today, the primary activities of our species is still confined to 

 less than 25 percent of the planet, historically held at bay by the 

 aquatic world that has resisted our colonizing ways. 



Ironically, instead of turning to the sea for our future, we have, 

 and I believe in many ways, validly turned our eyes to the heavens, 

 convinced that maybe the future lay in space. 



Perhaps some day that will come. But I am convinced not in time 

 to save us from the path that we find ourselves on right now. 



I want to make you understand that I am a strong supporter of 

 the space program. In fact, as an oceanographer, I've been envious 

 of their ability to bring together science, industry, and academia to 

 work together in a common path. And I hope that one of the by- 

 products of this hearing will bring the community that sits behind 

 me together as much as the committees in front of me. 



But I find it ironic that humans have lived in space now for 

 longer periods of time than they've ever lived underwater. In fact, 

 recent congressional action is forcing us to abandon our only under- 

 water research facility where scientists are able to live beneath the 

 sea for extended periods of time. 



Isn't it interesting that Congress has been funding studies to 

 look at potential colonization of the moon, but we've never, to my 

 knowledge, initiated a study on how we might colonize the oceans. 



To me, the most important image to come out of the space pro- 

 gram was when an astronaut on his way to the moon trained his 

 cameras back over his shoulder and captured an image of a very 

 small, greenish-blue planet embedded in a black velvet void of 

 nothingness. 



Ironically, we have good topographic maps now of the far side of 

 the moon, of its volcanic craters, than similar features in our own 

 exclusive economic zone just off our shores. 



Wlien President Reagan signed the law creating the exclusive 

 economic zone, the size of America doubled. Yet, most of this mod- 

 ern-day Louisiana Purchase remains unexplored. The largest single 

 feature on the surface of the planet is the Mid-Ocean Ridge, which 

 covers a quarter of the planet's total surface area. Yet, despite its 

 tremendous size and the critical role this mountain range plays in 

 the origin of the earth's outer skin, Neil Armstrong walked on the 

 moon before the first human beings entered the largest feature on 

 earth, when they dove to the rift valley of the Mid-Ocean Ridge in 

 1973. 



Few people realize that there are more active volcanoes under- 

 water than on land, or know of the great plains that dwarf those 

 in America, or of the canyons that are far greater than the Grand 

 Canyon, or that the mighty Rocky Mountains would fit into a small 

 portion of the Mid-Ocean Ridge. 



