We started – Walsh and Piccard made it to Mariana Trench before we got to the moon – but then the whole thing just stopped cold. I wonder what the world would have looked like if the US and Russia had fought a “depths race” instead of a space race?

I came up with a different but parallet re-alignment of Federal ocean authority:

1) Detach NOAA from DoCommerce, separate R&E from Ocean Management & Enforcement

2) Detach USCG from DHS, downgrade DHS from Cabinet Dept. to Executive Branch agency

3) Combine USCG with NOAA Uniformed Corps, Ocean Management & Enforcement to form NMMA
= National Marine Management Adminsitration — joint ops w/DoD, DoJ, DoCommerce, etc.

4) Combine NASA with NOAA’s R&E to form NEXA = National Exploration Administration

Read Part 1 and 2 and above for why NOAA’s mission doesn’t allow for exploration thus is not an equivalent of NASA

This relates closely to my PhD research, where I am reflecting on the disparity between the role of the oceans (in particular the deep sea) in nature, and the reflection of that in biology. Biology as a science does not reflect nature, as the largest ecosystems on the planet (which we ironically call ‘Earth’) are chronically underexplored, the deep pelagic realm is even virtually unknown.

I am convinced the deep sea currently holds the highest potential for high impact discoveries that are capable of influencing biology at a fundamental level. The importance of ocean science in this context is not to be underestimated. For biology to progress as a science and in its understanding of nature, it really needs to address this disparity.

Even though I am from a different country (the Netherlands), I highly sympathize with these thoughts of establishing a more independent agency. Scientists can’t do their science when they constantly have to make financial ends meet. Something which Edward Forbes (1815-1854) experienced as financial reasons forced him to take on the position of Curator at the Geological Society of London, causing him to largely abandon the work on his Aegean Sea collections. He exclaimed;
“…I must take what I can get, and give up working at science for the mere sake of science,…” (Memoir of Edward Forbes, p.326)
As the distractions of the Geological Society accumulated he was driven into despair stating:
“I wish I had stuck to the brush, and never meddled with natural history, which is only fit for independent amateurs.” (Memoir of Edward Forbes, p.357)
I often wonder if Forbes’ hypothesis on life in the deep sea (lifeless beyond 300 fathoms) would have remained the same, had he had the independence to fully work through his Aegean Sea collections and journey to the Red Sea for the intended comparative study of species distribution.

But we should have explored the ocean depths long before space.