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• Identifying the critical barriers to job creation. 



Programs like this, as well as the planned Marine Technology Loan Fund, provide 

 opportunities for partners such as the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of 

 Oceanography (URIGSO) and the RIEDC to combine resources and proliferate 

 extensive technical expertise in oceanography and other related sciences. The Marine 

 Technology Loan Fund wU! be specifically targeted at entrepreneurs, business owners, 

 and scientists to bridge the gap between marine technology development and 

 commercialization. This may weU be one of the most exciting tools we use. 

 Unfortunately, this ftind depends in part on an av/ard of a grant from the Federal 

 Economic Development Administration which is anticipated shortly but has not yet 

 been confirmed. Since this program is targeted at precisely the sort of private-sector 

 needs that other oceanographic programs will spin off, the synergy seems almost 

 inevitable. 



This type of synergy must be encouraged to occur across the bounds of industry, 

 government and academia. We roust continue to make use of Rhode Island's world 

 class academic resoiffces while uniting State and Federal agencies in their most 

 effective roles for maximum results at minimum public cost. Towards completing this 

 objective, we are cooperating with the efforts of Brown University, the National 

 Aeronautic & Space Administration and Applied Science Associates to develop and 

 commercialize satellite-based technology useful in analyzing marine resources. This 

 project has the potential of moving a leading-edge technology fiom the laboratories of 

 Brown into the marketplace, with the potential to create export-based jobs in 

 manufacturing and technology services for Rhode Islanders. By starting with a 

 comprehensive analysis of Narragansett Bay, the project will create a state-of-the-art 

 tool for better management of Rhode Island's crowning resource. Resource maps 

 generated through this process will be of value in planning for the protection of 

 environmentally sensitive resources; targeting areas for more effective and sustainable 

 economic uses: and identifying threats to the Bay as early as possible. This tool 

 should prove especially useful to the State in pursuing Governor Almond's priority to 

 reinvigorate and develop Rhode Island's aquaculture industry. 



Perhaps in no other marine industry has this Country experienced a greater 

 economic growth rate than in aquaculture. Despite the decline of groundfish fisheries 

 in New England, the demand for seafood products has steadily increased. Aquaculture 

 was reported in the Rhode Island Commercial Fisheries Economic Adjustment 

 Strategy to be an approach by which it may be possible to mitigate the effects of a 

 decreasing fishery on the states seafood industry. As we may already know, 

 aquaculture is not a near term remedy for the over exploitation of groundfish stocks. 

 However, it is a potentially powerful marine related economic sector in it's own right 

 and can provide supplemental income to other sectors of the seafood industry and 

 defense workers. The advance of oceanographic research will no doubt compliment 

 the growth and expansion of this implicitly expanding industry. 



The synergy of all the aforementioned programs are essential tools that will be 

 utilized during the expansion and promotion of a sustainable aquaculture industry. For 

 example, the programs mentioned today will facilitate the creation of use maps to 



