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prograin. This morning I gave a lectvire to more than 200 imdergraduate students in a 

 general education course on oceanography. Marine science courses are very popular with 

 our undergraduate students. In fact more than half of all graduating students at UCSB 

 have taken at least one course in marine sdence. This amounts to thousands of students 

 per year. Why do our students take courses dealing with the ocean? The main reason 

 appears to be because young people are very interested in the ocean environment and its 

 life, and sense the great importance of the ocean's role in their destiny; its role as a major 

 player in the global environment, the global economy, security, and as a frontier zone of 

 discovery. Undergraduate students also work as apprentices in many of our marine 

 sdence laboratories. Currently we have 138 vmdergraduate students employed in 

 laboratories associated with the Marine Science Institute (MSI). Also we have more than 

 100 graduate students at UCSB working on marine-related research problems. The extent 

 of this activity seems to reflect the public's insatiable apjjetite for knowledge about the 

 ocean; also reflected by an on-going proliferation of marine aquaria in this nation and the 

 world. In this regard, each year at MSI we guide more than 7,000 school children on tours 

 through the university's sea-water facility and biological holding tanks. This is one of the 

 university's most popular public outreadi programs and has required a lottery to help 

 regulate the strong demand. In these and related teaching programs we have discovered 

 that our marine sdence education programs have been effective in helping students 

 nurture interest in sdence. 



Why study the oceans? Why should sodety support research in marine sdence? I believe 

 this is important because the oceans are becoming increasingly linked to the great future 

 challenges that currently face human beings. What vdU be the big issues facing sodety in 

 the 21st century? I believe that the most important challenges facing sodety in the next 

 century will be those resulting from extremely rapid human population growth and 

 associated industrialization. This will severely test global resources and the related 

 integrity of the global environment and biosphere. Also tested will be the existing sodal 

 order. The ocean will become increasingly important in these key future issues. The ocean 

 is the dominant featiire of Earth; it covers 72% of the Earth's surface, constitutes more than 

 90% of the habitable space for life, and contains critical food and mineral resources. Our 

 weather, in large measure, is formed and strongly modified over the oceans. The ocean 

 exerts truly enormous control over the global climate system. The Pacific and Southern 

 Oceans tu-e particularly important in this regard. The f>eople of the United States have 

 developed a strong affinity with the ocean. More than 50 percent of the U.S. population 

 lives within 50 miles of the ocean and the Great Lakes. Human populatiorw throughout the 

 world duster dose to the ocean. The oceans are very important in international 

 transportation espedcilly related to trade. Increasing effidency in marine transportation in 

 international trade has played a key role in the expansion of the global economy. Further, 

 the apparent shrinking of our planet has led to greater importance of the ocean with respect 

 to national and international security, and hence of increasing importance to the military. 

 The U.S. Navy has alvrays had a dose relationship with the oceanographic community, 

 with the attitude that new basic knowledge about the ocean automatically strengthens the 

 Navy's mission. With the end of the Cold War, the Navy is entering into a new phase of 

 sharing its formerly dassified facilities with imdassified acadenuc researchers in the same 

 spirit 



