150 



I think a thing that has not been mentioned here today, I wear 

 a number of hats, and one of them is as the founder of the Jason 

 Project, the Jason Foundation for Education. 



It's very important that we not only learn about the oceans 

 through the combined efforts of the various organizations here 

 today. It's also critical that we work together to prepare the next 

 generation of oceanographers and scientists and engineers and leg- 

 islators. 



I think the Jason Project is a good example of leveraging, in that 

 we've gone out and most of the funding into this educational pro- 

 gram is from the private sector. We've gone out to corporate Amer- 

 ica, who are concerned about the supply of engineers and scientists 

 in the pipeline. We have a wonderful collaborative effort with the 

 United States Navy in providing the assets under the SECNAV ini- 

 tiative for access to assets in the use of the NR-1 and their support 

 ship this summer. 



We're also working with NOAA in that access of the Habitat Pro- 

 gram. 



But I must point out that if you want — those of us who are 

 known as risk-takers, those of us who are known as going on to the 

 edges of the system and breaking new frontier, as I feel com- 

 fortable doing as an explorer, if we go out and we get industry to 

 put $5 million into a program, if we go out and develop collabo- 

 rative efforts with the Navy to leverage their assets, and if we go 

 out and work with NOAA and work with 12,000 science teachers — 

 we have students in Pennsylvania, we have students in every dis- 

 trict that is represented by these committees right now studying 

 oceanography. 



We cannot then pull the plug on the program. 



We've made a tremendous investment with private industry and 

 the military assets, to only now not have the Habitat in question 

 that we have 500,000 kids stud3dng right now, and 12,000 teachers. 



Mr. ROHRABACHER. The greatest guarantee of not pulling the 

 plug on the program of course is to make sure that there's as many 

 people contributing to the pot as can be, and not just the federal 

 contribution. 



Dr. Ballard. The vast majority of the funding on this project is 

 private, the private sector. 



Mr. ROHRABACHER. Right. When I asked you about space and the 

 cooperation, are you aware, or is anyone aware on this panel of the 

 initiative taken up at the Ames Laboratory that is trying to de- 

 velop a spacesuit that will be also a deep sea diving suit? 



Dr. Ballard. We've been working with Ames, but we've been 

 mostly working with their robotic vehicles. 



Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Baker? 



Dr. Baker. Yes, I am aware of that initiative, which has been an 

 important one because it's an application of NASA technology to 

 deep sea diving. 



In fact, Sylvia Earle, who is a former chief scientists at NOAA, 

 has been involved in advising on that project. 



Mr. ROHRABACHER. I'm a scuba diver as well as a surfer, and I 

 think it's important for us to realize that a lot of the training that's 

 being done in order to help build things in space are actually being 



