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Good morning. My name is Margaret Leinen, and I am the Dean of the Graduate 

 School of Oceanography and Vice Provost for Marine Programs at the University 

 of Rhode Island. I want to thank you for the opportimity to comment on 

 mechanisms to create effective information and technology transfer partnerships 

 to make the most of our national oceanographic resources and assets for defense 

 and non-defense industries. In addition to my academic perspective on this 

 issue, I serve as President of The Oceanography Society, a professional society for 

 oceanographers, and have served at the Chair of the Board of Governors of the 

 Joint Oceanographic Institutions, a consortia of the nation's major oceanographic 

 research and educational institutions. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH TO NATION'S 

 ECONOMY AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 



Economy 



The marine sector of American industry is broad, diverse and large. It 

 includes not only ocean technical industries of the sort typical of defense-related 

 industry, but the products also include food resources (fisheries, aquaculture, 

 seafood safety, technology and marketing), transportation (shipping and ports), 

 recreation (boating, marinas, beaches and other marine attractions), and non- 

 food resources (oil, minerals, sands, gravel and construction material). In 

 addition, each of these sectors of the marine economy is supported by a vigorous 

 techiucal support industry (fishing technology and seafood processing; nutrients, 

 pumps and other aquaculture technologies; positioning, mapping and charting 

 technology for transportation, as well as goods handling technologies for ports). 

 Finally, environmental technology has become an industry in its own right. 

 Monitoring instrumentation and services (such as water quality monitoring), and 

 management activities (e.g. oil spill cleanup) are important service ocean 

 industries. 



The marine industry of the country is a major industry, not a restricted or 

 anecdotal area of work in which a few high tech companies make electronic 

 gizmos or ships for defer\se. In Rhode Island the combined marine-related 

 businesses and industries account for 10% of the Gross Domestic Product of the 

 State. In some states, like Hawaii and Florida, the percentage is even higher. 

 Furthermore, many of these fields are ones in which we are the acknowledged 

 world leaders in information and research, but not in goods production (such as 

 aquaculture and its technology). Thus, there is much room for economic growth 

 in this sector of the economy.. 



An important corollary effect on the economy is that because of the 

 enormous attraction of coastal areas for business and for quality of life, the 

 Department of Commerce estimates that 43% of the jobs in the country are in the 

 coastal zone - our ocean interface. This means that the quality of life for a large 

 fraction of our wealth-producers is closely linked to the coast and ocean and to 

 their effective management. These thoughts are close to the hearts of Rhode 



