268 • Marine Minerals: Exploring Our New Ocean Frontier 



OTA surveyed 10 industrial organizations (pri- 

 marily geophysical firms) actively collecting and/or 

 utilizing EEZ data, with these results: 



• About 75 percent of the companies contacted 

 collect all or part of the EEZ data that they 

 use, and almost all of the data are digital. 

 Predominately, the stored data are unaltered 

 and on magnetic tape. 



• One major geophysical prospecting company 

 far outstripped the combined total of stored 

 data by all other companies — 10'* bytes — 

 amounting to a total of about 2 million reels 

 of magnetic tape. The other companies ranged 

 from a few reporting hundreds of reels of mag- 

 netic tape to the remainder utilizing only a few 

 tens of reels. 



• Most of the companies make their data avail- 

 able only through purchase. A few reported 

 providing data to national data centers, espe- 

 cially those collecting data for a Federal agency 

 under contract. 



• Estimates of future increase or decrease of use 

 were highly variable and were indicated as be- 

 ing sensitive to future economic conditions, 

 particularly in terms of variability of costs of 

 EEZ resources (e.g., oil). 



Problems Handling Industry Data. — Govern- 

 ment agencies frequendy replicate data that private 

 companies have "in-house." Such duplication of 

 efforts is extremely costly. Some industry spokes- 

 persons believe that Federal survey programs are 

 unfairly competitive with industry surveys. On the 

 other hand, private industry often retains details 

 related to their surveys as proprietary information. 

 Federal access to details creates an awkward situa- 

 tion in that once survey data are in Federal hands, 

 they can be accessed by others through the Free- 

 dom of Information Act. A centralized index of in- 

 dustry surveys similar to the NGDC GEODAS 

 (GEOphysical DAta System) system is needed so 

 researchers will know what private sector data ex- 

 ist, thereby avoiding potential duplication. 



CLASSIFICIATION OF BATHYMETRIC AND GEOPHYSICAL DATA 



Multi-beam mapping systems, e.g., Sea Beam 

 and the Bathymetric Swath Survey System — BS^, 

 can produce bathymetric maps of the seabed many 

 times more detailed than single beam echo sound- 

 ing systems (figure 7-3, for example). This new gen- 

 eration of seabed contour maps approaches — and 

 sometimes exceeds — the accuracy and detail of land 

 maps and provides oceanographers a picture of the 

 deep ocean floor not available a scant decade ago. 

 Prior to 1979, before the first NOAA research vessel 

 Surveyor was equipped with Sea Beam, the U.S. 

 oceanographic community only had available low- 

 resolution bathymetric maps that were suitable for 

 navigation and general purposes but lacked the de- 

 tail and precision needed for science. 



Some marine geologists and geophysicists con- 

 sider the development of multi-beam mapping sys- 

 tems to be their profession's equivalent of the in- 

 vention of the particle accelerator to a physicist or 

 the electron microscope to a biologist. Now that the 

 technological threshold for sensing the intricate de- 

 tails of the landforms beneath thousands of feet of 

 ocean water has been overcome, oceanographers 

 believe that tremendous strides can be made in ex- 



ploring the seabed and understanding the processes 

 occurring at great ocean depths. 



The convergence of two advanced technologies — 

 multi-beam echo sounders and very accurate 

 navigational systems — provides the basis for ex- 

 tremely detailed maps of the seabed that are spa- 

 tially accurate in longitudinal and latitudinal posi- 

 tion on the earth's surface as well as precise in de- 

 termining the depth and landforms of the undersea 

 terrain. Multi-beam systems, when used in con- 

 junction with the satellite-based Global Position- 

 ing System, can produce charts from which either 

 surface craft equipped with the same shipboard in- 

 struments or submarines with inertial navigation 

 and sonar systems can navigate and accurately po- 

 sition themselves.*^ If geophysical information, e.g., 

 gravity and magnetic data, is superimposed over 

 the mapped region, its value for positioning and 

 navigation is further enhanced. A 1987 workshop 

 of Federal, private, and academic representatives 



"R. Tycc, J. Miller, R. Edwards, and A. Silver, "Deep Ocean 

 Pathfinding — High Resolution Mapping and Navigation," Proceed- 

 ings of the Oceans '86 Conference (Washington, DC: Marine Tech- 

 nology Society, 1986), pp. 163-168. 



