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use. Such data. from defense satellites, submarines, ships at 

 sea, and underwater arrays will be crucial in understanding 

 global change and addressing a vast number of other 

 scientific problems including weather forecasting, 

 pollution, fishery management, mineral exploration, and 

 many others. 



It is clear that we face a substantial institutional problem 

 today. From the brief glimpses we have had so far, we 

 know that this data will add substantially to our 

 fundamental understanding of the ocean. We do not yet 

 know exactly how it will augment other civilian 

 observational programs or whether it can substitute for or 

 replace such other programs. Before we can fully 

 understand how to structure the linkages between the 

 mission agencies, we need more experience. 



In short, we need to become more serious over the pace and 

 extent to which we declassify potentially valuable data. 

 We also need to find a way to integrate the use of this data 

 into the traditional peer reviewed scientific process while 

 protecting our legitimate national security interests. I am 

 aware of proposals such as the establishment of an 

 "exploitation center" at the Stennis Space Center. We may 

 need to develop such specialized mechanisms and I hope 

 we can fully explore these concepts today and in future 

 hearings. 



In closing, I believe we all recognize that we are entering 

 the information era at a very rapid pace. The ability to 



