160 



[Laughter.] 



Dr. Ballard. But I simply want to point out that it's very impor- 

 tant that we are out there. We're not normally out there. We don't 

 have gills. And we must make sure that if we're going to utilize the 

 ocean, that oceanographers are able to get in the ocean. 



Mr. ROEMER. Let me just conclude with a final question to Admi- 

 ral Boorda, if you can just kind of wrap up my limited questioning 

 here. 



How might you help us with suggestions to create better partner- 

 ships between all these agencies with a limited amount of re- 

 sources? And how might Congress respond with our own reorga- 

 nization better to that? 



Admiral Boorda. I think Admiral Watkins has the right idea. 

 That isn't just because I used to be his executive assistant. I think 

 he has the right idea. 



[Laughter.] 



Admiral Watkins. I have to — now it's a conflict of interest. 



[Laughter.] 



Admiral Boorda, I threatened him that if he didn't testify prop- 

 erly today, I would change his fitness report that's sitting out at 

 St. Louis in the archives out there when he was a young captain 

 who I trained as my executive assistant. 



[Laughter.] 



So, with that comment, you can go ahead. 



[Laughter.] 



Admiral BoORDA. I thank Admiral Watkins. In fact, CORE does 

 have the right idea. 



Having us meet, having the Navy have executive boards, having 

 hearings like this are all helpful. But we need to make this a rou- 

 tine way of doing business, where we get together, work out our 

 problems, come to you and tell you what we can't work out and 

 where we need help, where you think about it in ways that only 

 you can think about it and come to us with guidance and help and 

 we have a good interchange. 



I don't think that happens in an ad hoc way. I think something 

 has to be done to make it more routine. 



I was listening to Dr. Ballard answer your question. One of the 

 bad parts about having so many people come with you is they all 

 have things they give you and you can't possibly read them all in 

 time. 



But it's interesting that this whole list of things I got, as people 

 said, gee, tell them this, are things where it is exactly opposite, 

 where the situation has shifted and the community is no longer de- 

 pendent upon us for getting it started and doing it. But we are now 

 dependent upon someone else and worried about the cuts in their 

 funding. 



So we're mutually interdependent now. A couple of these notes 

 I got are interesting because they talk about satellites which we no 

 longer control. We did during the era that Dr. Ballard was talking 

 about. But now we've combined. And so we take data from DOD, 

 the Air Force, and NOAA. And so cuts to NOAA's satellite pro- 

 grams are important. 



The national data centers that NOAA runs are a major source 

 of information we need that we put in the Fleet Numerical Weath- 



