27A * Marine Minerals: Exploring Our New Ocean Frontier 



agencies with properly cleared personnel will have 

 access to the multi-beam data, it is uncertain 

 whether or not private firms can have similar ac- 

 cess. Some firms can handle classified data, but 

 others cannot. Firms that can access such data 

 would have a significant advantage in the bid proc- 

 ess. It remains to be seen as to whether or not in- 

 dustry will tolerate such a disparity. 



Since the NOAA mapping program is currently 

 the only one affected by the threat of classification, 

 it remains possible for individuals to contract with 

 domestic and foreign firms to conduct multi-beam 

 surveys in the U.S. EEZ. International law does 

 not preclude the conduct of such surveys within the 

 EEZ. Permission is required only when surveys fall 

 within the Territorial Sea. A West German sur- 

 vey ship has already conducted surveys within the 

 U.S. EEZ in cooperation with U.S. industry. 

 Broad-coverage bathymetric surveys would be ex- 

 pensive, and, given the many other uncertainties 

 facing the domestic ocean mining industry, e.g., 

 unstable minerals markets, high cost of capital, and 

 regulatory uncertainties, it is unlikely that mining 

 ventures would commit the necessary funds to con- 

 tract for such reconnaissance multi-beam surveys, 

 thus reducing the likelihood that mine sites would 

 be developed successfully. Security restrictions on 

 multi-beam data will affect a number of other 

 undersea activities as well, e.g., submersible oper- 

 ations, modelling, identification of geological haz- 

 ards, cable and pipe routing, fishing, etc. 



Through July of 1987, there were no classifica- 

 tion restrictions placed on multi-beam bathymetry 

 collected and processed by the academic fleet. How- 

 ever, the Navy has given no assurances that aca- 

 demic data will not be classified in the future. With 

 the exception of surveys made of the Aleutian 

 Trench in the Pacific Ocean and Baltimore/Wil- 

 mington Canyons in the Atlantic Ocean, seldom 

 do academic vessels undertake broad bathymetric 

 coverage; rather, they tend to concentrate on 

 smaller specific units of the seafloor. Most of the 

 surveys made by the academic fleet have been made 

 outside the U.S. EEZ. On the other hand, if funds 

 were made available, it may be possible to mount 

 a cooperative broad-scale mapping effort among at 

 least three world-class oceanographic research ves- 

 sels in the U.S. academic fleet that are equipped 



with multi-beam systems to provide high-quality 

 data with atlas coverage.^* 



Impacts on U.S. Econoniic and 

 Scientific Position 



Commercial interests represented at the OTA 

 workshop in Woods Hole suggested that restrictive 

 classification procedures could chill the development 

 of new echo sounding technology, since domestic 

 civilian markets for such instruments would prob- 

 ably disappear. Should this situation arise, foreign 

 instrument manufacturers are likely to displace 

 U.S. firms in international markets, and the pre- 

 dominance established by the United States in the 

 1950s and 1960s would give way, with the leading 

 edge of acoustical sounding technology (much of 

 which was sponsored by the Department of De- 

 fense) being transferred overseas. To some extent, 

 this has already happened. There is also a risk that 

 as other nations allow unclassified multi-beam 

 bathymetric maps to be produced within their EEZ, 

 U.S. ocean mining firms, most of which are multi- 

 national, might find it advantageous to locate min- 

 ing ventures in foreign economic zones and aban- 

 don efforts in the U.S. EEZ. At a minimum, 

 classification may drive U.S. firms into multina- 

 tional agreements in order to acquire needed data 

 within the U.S. EEZ. 



International scientific competition is fierce. This 

 fact is seldom fully appreciated by those unfamiliar 

 with the science establishment. Oceanographers at- 

 tending the OTA Woods Hole workshop were uni- 

 form in their belief that U.S marine geologists and 

 geophysicists would be put at a disadvantage with 

 their foreign colleagues who may not be limited by 

 data classification. This might tend to lure U.S. 

 researchers to focus their efforts elsewhere in the 

 world where there are fewer constraints on the use 

 and exchange of multi-beam and geophysical data, 

 thus depriving the United States of the benefit of 

 research within its own EEZ. 



There was general agreement at the OTA Woods 

 Hole workshop that, if faced with the alternative 



*'The research vessel Thomas Washington operated by Scripps In- 

 stitution of Oceanography and the research vessels Robert Conrad 

 and Atlantis II operated by Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory 

 and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution respectively. 



