From the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) Oct. 18, 1990

Mapping a strategy

Scientists complain -- and lobby -- over lack of ocean floor maps

By James Hrynyshyn
Special Writer

WOODS HOLE -- While a multibillion-dollar space probe maps the surface of Venus, scientists studying our own planet say they can't get the same job done here.

Maps of the ocean floor, which covers more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface, are fundamental to a variety of research, from the study of earthquakes to deep-sea biology.

And yet, said Michael Purdy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "academia has mapped only one tenth of one per cent of the ocean floor, if that,"

The primary obstacle is a lack of funding, but some researchers say they are also frustrated by U.S. Navy policy, which keeps many existing charts out of reach of civilians.

Tectonic Plates The "shape of the ocean," said Purdy, a marine geophysicist studying the vast sections of the Earth's crust known as tectonic plates, give scientists "an understanding of what's driving the Earth.... It's the motion of these plates that create everything around you."

The primary tool for ocean mapping is known as multi-beam echo-sounding, a technique that employs ship-mounted sonar equipment to produce detailed two- and three-dimensional models of the ocean floor. The cost of operating one multi-beam mapper runs from $1,000 to $2,000 a day, about a tenth of the cost of operating the average oceanographic research vessel, according to David Gallo, a former ocean-mapping specialist and now an international liaison for the institution.

Funding Difficulties But securing those funds from the dwindling resources available to government agencies is extremely difficult unless the project is tied to more specific research goals. Mapping just for the sake of collecting data is virtually impossible, said Gallo, even though the information "has to be useful eventually."

Another WHOI veteran of ocean mapping, Brian Tucholke, has similar complaints. "General mapping is the kind of thing that we would like to have in an ideal world," he said. "It's very hard to justify the money" under the existing granting environment.

The obvious solution -- combing a mapping project with other studies on a single cruise, or as Gallo called it, "doing all your shopping at once" - presents its own problem, however.

Multidisciplinary Studies
Gallo said granting agencies such as the National Science Foundation are not accustomed to funding multidisciplinary studies. Such an application will likely be rejected as being too broad and unfocused. "You'll never see a ship go out today that has a biologist and a chemist and geologist ... a multidisciplinary team is very, very rare today."

As a result, research vessels and other labs routinely pass over uncharted regions without conducting any mapping for lack of a few thousand dollars.

Meanwhile, NASA's Magellan probe is orbiting Venus and transmitting detailed and integrated maps of almost the entire surface of the planet, a situation Purdy called "ridiculous."

In response, University of Rhode Island oceanographer Jeff Fox is leading a quiet lobbying effort of government officials on behalf of several American research institutions.

$1 million a year
The goal, said Fox, amounts to only $1 million a year to operate multi-beam mapping on university ships already funded for other projects. "If we begin to collect it now in a routine fashion, this will integrate over a few decades to a tremendous amount of data at a reasonable price," said Fox.

"The resolution of multi-beam maps is up to 10 times better than Magellan maps and would cost a fraction as much, he added.

Ironically, hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean floor maps have been made but remain off-limits to the institution and other oceanographic research centers because the information has been classified by the Department of Defense.

"One of the things that has frustrated me as a scientist was that a lot of the data does exist," said Gallo. "I'm always amazed at how much data the Navy has."

Difficult Access
Access to those maps is hard to come by, even for scientists who have been granted security clearance from the Navy, said Purdy. He added that access does not necessarily mean the scientist can publish anything related to the maps.

"What it amounts to is that people can ignore the fact that data exists," lamented Tucholke."

A spokesman for the Navy's Office of the Oceanographer in Washington, D.C., said she was unable to discuss Navy mapping policy, which she described only as "controversial."

The situation may be improving, however. In the summer of 1989, the Navy declassified all ocean map data collected by civilian government scientists, primarily the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The new policy covers most of the coastal 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

Classified Maps
But, as Tucholke pointed out, maps of some regions within the zone, those the Navy considers vital to the navigation of ballistic-missile submarines, remain classified.

Institution director Craig Dorman, a former Navy scientist, said the Navy may be moving toward a more open policy, but added that most scientists understand the need "to be sensitive to security needs."

Richard Pittenger, until this summer the chief oceanographer for the Navy, said the subject of ocean map classification was frequently discussed by Navy officials.

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