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First, Navy ships employ advanced technology with well trained and educated crews. 

 Second, Navy ships often operate in areas not frequented by other ships. 



4. Classification Issues. Adm. Watkins has also noted the value of a number 

 of Navy data sets with respect to ocean research and has asked that consideration be given 

 to their declassification in a manner consistent with the legitimate security needs of the 

 United States. My observation is that it is very difficult to get anything declassified from 

 the bottom-up, and I want you to know that we very much appreciate continued 

 Congressional pressure to release these data sets when there are no reasons for their 

 classification. 



Although the ocean is opaque with respect to electromagnetic radiation, it is nearly 

 transparent to acoustic energy: an 80 second pulse of 260 Hz sound with 15 watts of 

 energy can be detected to ranges in excess of 1000 km. This makes the acoustic ocean 

 surveillance assets (SOSUS stations) of the US Navy exceedingly valuable as ocean 

 observatones. They can be used for such diverse activities as listening to and tracking - 

 marine mammals, monitonng thermal plume activity at submarine ndges, tracking 

 lagrangian floats, and, with tomography techniques, studying the ocean's response to 

 seasonal changes of wind stress, etc. The success of such studies requires regular, routine 

 access to the data collected at the SOSUS stations. 



NPS has recently acquired the SOSUS station at Point Sur, California. It has not 

 been actively used by the Navy for many years. We have formed a partnership with 

 MBAR] to exploit acoustic data from this SOSUS array for ocean research and education. 

 We would not only like to use these data for research and education, but we would also like 

 to make these data available to the community in real time over the internet. We are 

 currently trying to get permission to do this. One problem, of course, is that it raises the 

 possibility of some other country tracking or listening to USN submarines using US 

 listening arrays, which really is unacceptable. But nevertheless, when there are no USN 

 submarines in the area, and US security cannot be threatened, we would like to be able to 

 easily use these data for research and instruction. The potential of these acoustic data for 

 improving our understanding of Eastern Pacific Ocean is imlimited. 



5. Deep Ocean Waste Disposal Sites. I believe that an excellent opportunity 

 to develop federal-private partnerships exists in the area of ocean waste disposal and 

 remediation. Although no longer used, a number of hazardous waste disposal sites exist 

 along US. coasts which offer a valuable opportumty for long-term environmental studies as 

 well as development of remediation techniques. Commercial applications of related 



