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similar activities. The country can be seen as linked to, or 

 divided from, most of the rest of the world by the oceans; they 

 have been both the route of most of our commerce, and a major 

 national security asset. The facts mean that the oceans are 

 important to our national life. 



Increasing knowledge of oceanographic events in the tropical 

 Pacific ocean (El Nino, Southern Ocean: ENSO) is enabling us to 

 begin to have a capability to predict some aspects of our climate 

 andweather well in advance. This capability is important for 

 agriculture in the whole country, and for everything else weather 

 affects. Knowledge of the oceans, the ability to measure and 

 monitor them, and the technology to use the oceans, is key to 

 naval capabilities to protect, or to project power; to operate to 

 our best advantage on, above and below the seas. The same 

 knowledge of the oceans, and the same basic technology for using 

 it is also key to preservation and strengthening of fisheries, to 

 aquaculture, to the siting and design of sewage treatment and 

 outfalls, to the location of marinas, to the quality of boating, 

 and to safety at sea. 



Understanding the oceans can be a major asset to economic and 

 other aspects of U.S. living. We can take advantage of knowledge 

 of the oceans and the coastal zone to understand how our 

 activities and businesses can be conducted in an appropriate way 

 that uses the properties of the oceans, and the interaction of 

 the oceans with the coast and the coastal zone, to our best short 

 and long term advantage. Knowledge, and technology (seen as 

 knowledge of 'how to' do things) , are a foundation for better and 

 more successful businesses, and for states and local communities 

 to use the oceans and coastal zone as assets. 



The bodies of fundamental knowledge, and the basic technologies 

 for using the knowledge, required for defense purposes and for 

 civilian purposes are largely the same; they strongly overlap. 

 The knowledge and technology are automatically dual use, although 

 the details of application and the specific embodiments of the 

 technology may differ. I have seldom, if ever, seen a case in 

 which knowledge and technology developed for naval purposes was 

 not usable, and valuable, for civil and business purposes, and 

 vice versa. Naval purposes and civil purposes may emphasize 

 different application problems, may approach them in different 

 ways, and may produce somewhat different areas of knowledge and 

 technology, but the resulting knowledge and technology are usable 

 for each other's purposes. Important developments for the Navy 

 have come from civilian projects, and for civil purposes from 

 naval projects. Having both approaches to somewhat different 

 purposes and problems produces results that are better for both 

 than either would be for each alone. 



For this reason, the Navy and other federal agencies heavily 

 involved in the oceans and oceanographic matters, including the 



