120 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Dr. Frosch. And our final witness, the 

 former CNO and former Secretary of Energy, and currently the Ex- 

 ecutive Director or head of CORE, Admiral Watkins. 



STATEMENT OF ADMIRAL JAMES D. WATKINS, USN [Ret.], CON- 

 SORTIUM FOR OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND EDU- 

 CATION 



Admiral Watkins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Chairman Saxton, 

 Chairman Rohrabacher, and members of the subcommittees. 



On behalf of the nearly 40 academic oceanographic institutions 

 of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, re- 

 ferred to by prior witnesses as CORE, I'd like to thank you for this 

 opportunity to testify at this special watershed hearing. 



Before going on, I'd like to bring to the attention of the chairmen 

 of the committees the fact that in my formal statement, I attach 

 statements from NASA, from DOE, USGS, MMS, and EPA, who 

 could not be here today at the table — we just didn't have a long 

 enough table. But I want to tell you how important they are to the 

 contribution of national science research in the oceans. 



They represent about 25 to 30 percent of the funding base for 

 this nation. And therefore, it cries out for some kind of an addi- 

 tional partnership between us, to make sure that we bring all of 

 the federal agencies together. They all make a contribution. They 

 aren't that redundant. They do work together. But we can do it bet- 

 ter in the future. 



I've been asked to wrap up today's hearing and discuss follow- 

 on actions that we should take to answer the call of this hearing 

 today to leverage national ocesmographic capabilities better, includ- 

 ing their public visibility, as well as their contribution to important 

 national goals. 



Now we've heard insightful testimony this morning fi*om wit- 

 nesses that represent the cross-section of the highest levels of lead- 

 ership in the oceanographic community. And several clear and im- 

 portant messages were presented to you. 



From those messages, ocean science is clearly contributing to the 

 overall well-being of the nation. But we can do more in the years 

 ahead. 



We're at a critical jiincture in attempting to match ocean science 

 and technology to growing societal needs. We stand at a point 

 which was made earlier by others, where we need to decide the fate 

 of the ocean sciences for the year 2000 and beyond. 



Now a quarter of a century ago, a major presidential commission 

 reshaped the federal oceanographic establishment. One major re- 

 sult was the coupling of oceanographic and atmospheric research 

 and the formation of NOAA. 



Now oceanographic research has matured. Twenty-five years ago, 

 much of the ocean research was driven by the Cold War. The idea 

 of satellites for oceanographic use was a pipedream at that time. 

 We had no inkling that an entire self-sufficient ecosystem could 

 thrive on hydrothermal vents, one of the most severe environments 

 on earth, as Dr. Ballard testified. 



As we've heard today, cheinges in the way we utilize and value 

 our oceans and coastal areas are now driving the potential for 

 many new applications of ocean science and technology and placing 



