Ocean Vision (Febuary 14, 1999)

Ocean Vision

by Sinjin Smith, Executive Director OASES
This article appeared in Ocean News and Technology magazine in the March/April 1998 issue.

On January 11-14 of this year (1998), the Third International Conference on Life Support and Biospheric Science was held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. During the conference, a panel composed of various members of both the undersea and space communities had a discussion on the commonalties between undersea personal life support systems and their counterparts in space Extra Vehicular Activities. The panel provided a platform for cross-pollination of information and various avenues of development for each design community. During the ensuing discussion, a comment was made by one of the panel members that it had seemed like the ocean community as a whole no longer had a driving vision or set of directives (unlike the space community which has a number of directives to keep it focused and moving forward). That observation did not set well with some of the members of the ocean community present for the simple fact that it was in effect partly or wholly true.

Looking back to the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s, there were upwards of 14 underwater habitats in use all over the world. Submersibles were being tooled up as fast as possible to join in the exploration of the earth's vast unknown oceans and all of its dark secrets. Yet currently, there is only one scientific underwater habitat in the world, it is the AQUARIUS, the jewel in NOAA's National Undersea Research Program. The large majority of the submersibles of old, as well as most of the habitats, have been decommissioned and are either resting in some vacant parking lot or stuffed away in some dusty museum no longer performing the magnificent tasks that they were designed for. There are a few submersibles being used for scientific research but they belong to a very small number of oceanographic institutions. What happened? Did we really meet and possibly surpass our expectations for research in the world's oceans? Is there still not a mountain of research and discovery still waiting out there in the oceans for us? It seems like we know more about the Moon and Mars than what we really know about the processes, relationships and occupants of the oceans.

That said, a suggested combined vision for the ocean community at large would be to focus on education, conservation, and preservation. These concepts are far from being new or even original, but all three combine to form a synergistic effect that will help to unite different members of the ocean community to ultimately work together as a whole and to provide us with avenues in which to progress and regain our own driving motivations.

Education comes in many forms: scientific research which allows for the creation of new drugs to combat disease, to understand our global weather processes and circulation system, for the discovery of new organisms, and much more. General education of the masses can increase awareness of our actions and their effects on the world's oceans and act as a guide for resource management. The focus of education should also center on children through the use of hands on and interactive teaching principles, for they are the stewards of the future oceans.

Conservation is increasingly important in light of the increasing human population, reduced amounts of raw materials available, decreasing food populations (fish, bi-valves, shellfish, etc.), and the climatic changes directly tied to the oceans. More people are utilizing the earth's waters today for various reasons, including: drinking water, fishing, crop irrigation of food, recreation, transportation, etc. What this equates to is increasing pressure on the available resources at hand. Regardless of the seemingly infinite size of the world's water supply, it remains finite - it can be quantified and measured.

Preservation is closely tied with education and conservation. The simple fact that we still do not truly understand how processes (chemical, biological, physical) which occur in the deep, semi-deep, and shallow waters directly or indirectly affect relationships to humankind, is reason enough to set aside untouched oasises throughout the world. These minimally impacted environments might eventually be called upon to help undo mankind's tampering with nature. They will provide much needed data for scientific research and help us to understand how to more accurately manage what resources we have now.

The guiding visions will assist in the rededication of time, energy, and funding into understanding all of the long and short-term impacts of humankind's actions on, in, and around the earth's oceans. The creation of a series of underwater habitats/colonies, advanced submersibles, better diving gear, etc., would aid in the facilitation of that knowledge. Armed with this increasing information, we will be able to better utilize the ocean's resources and minimize the destruction to it. The creation of new medicines, availability of raw materials, a "sustainable" food supply, pristine recreational resources and many yet unforeseen benefits will come from such investments.