1998 Year of the Ocean The Legendary Ocean — ^The Unexplored Frontier 



An end to the Cold War and cutbacks in defense spending have decreased 

 development of new ocean technologies. 



Large-scale development of ocean technology for military purposes has been 

 reduced. As a consequence, the non-military sector is losing the sizable benefit it 

 enjoyed for many years resulting from military development and operation of 

 expensive ocean technology — i.e., the tools for ocean exploration. On the other hand, 

 many of the expensive devices once not available outside the military community are 

 now open for wider use. The bad news, however, is that civilian budgets in large part 

 cannot afford to operate these capable but costly systems. 



The need for manned presence under the sea is decreasing. 



New technologies make it possible for humans to work beneath the waves without 

 actually physically being there. For example, seafloor observatories, like the Long- 

 term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO-15) off the coast of New Jersey, linked 

 electronically to satellites and land-based stations, are being developed. Currently, our 

 opportunities to know what's occurring in the ocean are limited. By combining 

 submersible vehicles and sensors communicating acoustically to a network of 

 moorings equipped with surface buoys and satellite links, scientists are getting a 

 better idea of what's occurring at the seafloor in real time. Satellites like the Geosat 

 and ERS-1 spacecraft, which were used to detect seamounts in the Pacific plate, will 

 be used in combination with conventional seafloor mapping techniques. Assessments 

 done via a number of technologies, including submersible vehicles, will become 

 increasingly important. For many applications, remotely operated systems, which can 

 perform more reliably and cost effecfively, are superior to manned systems. 

 Nevertheless, there will continue to be a role for the presence of humans under the sea 

 as divers and in submersibles, especially when the mission is exploration. 



The high cost of working in the oceans is forging partnerships between organizations 

 that have not traditionally worked together. 



Partnerships are being formed to support ventures that previously were the sole 

 domain of government. For example, Aquarius, the world's only underwater 

 laboratory, was removed from operation in the summer of 1 996 because of lack of 

 sufficient funding. Through an irmovative partnership with private industry, the 

 university community, and a private foundation, it was reconfigured and modernized 

 to reduce operational costs, and returned to service in the fall of 1997. Additional 

 partnerships to advance ocean interests are being encouraged and supported through 

 the Congressionally created National Oceanographic Partnership Program. 



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