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*We should research oceans because it helps us treat the world better and understand weather
*Climate change is becoming a big deal and investing in the ocean will help us fight climate change.

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Exploration is key to increasing our understanding of the ocean, so we can more effectively manage, conserve, regulate, and use ocean resources that are vital to our economy and to all of our lives.

Despite the fact that the ocean covers approximately 70% of Earth's surface and plays a critical role in supporting life on our planet, from the air we breathe and the food we eat to weather and climate patterns, our understanding of the ocean remains limited.

Ocean exploration is about making discoveries, searching for things that are unusual and unexpected. As the first step in the scientific process, the rigorous observations and documentation of biological, chemical, physical, geological, and archaeological aspects of the ocean gained from exploration set the stage for future research and decision-making.

Through ocean exploration, we collect data and information needed to address both current and emerging science and management needs. Exploration helps to ensure that ocean resources are not just managed, but managed in a sustainable way, so those resources are around for future generations to enjoy. Exploration of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone is important for national security, allowing us to set boundaries, protect American interests, and claim ocean resources.

Unlocking the mysteries of ocean ecosystems can reveal new sources for medical therapies and vaccines, food, energy, and more as well as inspire inventions that mimic adaptations of deep-sea animals. Information from ocean exploration can help us understand how we are affecting and being affected by changes in Earth's environment, including changes in weather and climate. Insights from ocean exploration can help us better understand and respond to earthquakes, tsunamis, and other hazards.

The challenges met while exploring the ocean can provide the impetus for new technologies and engineering innovations that can be applied in other situations, allowing us to respond more effectively in the face of an ocean crisis, such as an oil spill. And, ocean exploration can improve ocean literacy and inspire young people to seek critical careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

As a species, humans are naturally inquisitive - curiosity, desire for knowledge, and quest for adventure motivate modern explorers even today. And if all of these examples don't provide enough reasons to explore the ocean, well, ocean exploration is also just cool (if you need it: proof).

The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research is the only federal program dedicated to exploring the deep ocean, closing prominent gaps in our basic understanding of U.S. deep waters and the seafloor and delivering the ocean information needed to strengthen the economy, health, and security of our nation.

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What Is Ocean Exploration and Why Is It Important?: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

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Despite the fact that the ocean covers approximately 70% of Earth's surface and plays a critical role in supporting life on our planet, from the air we breathe and the food we eat to weather and climate patterns, our understanding of the ocean remains limited.

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we could learn more about the ocean.
*Of course exploration also has immediate and tangible benefits.  Doing new things means doing them in new ways and, necessity being the mother of invention, technology advances hand in hand with exploration

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This post is co-authored by Craig McClain and Al Dove

Among both scientists and non-scientists there is skepticism about James Cameron's "Deep Sea Challenge" dive into the Marianas Trench on Sunday and what it really achieved for society. We keep getting asked: why should we do this and what do we get from Cameron going to the deep? Deep-sea exploration is expensive, difficult and dangerous. Why should anyone go, let alone he?

One of our more cynical colleagues on Twitter stated:

"Rich asshole builds his own sub and dives really deep. Yawn. Gullible scios and journos mistake such vanity tourism for important discovery"

And one of us [Dr. M] admits that he was also skeptical of the importance of all of this to begin with, but that was before the exciting events of Sunday evening.

Yesterday, we spoke to some of the reasons why Cameron's dive was important, while acknowledging that some of these reasons may not be direct scientific gain. And this brings us to the difference between exploration and science. Deep-sea scientists are probably more comfortable moving back and forth between these two fields than most other scientists, given that the vast majority (and we do mean vast) of the deep-sea is unexplored. In other words, deep-sea science is still in its infancy. Exploration is for when we lack any systematic knowledge about a subject and seek to gather in this most simple fashion. We seek to define the unknown. Pure science, on the other hand, has a more explicit goal of the eventual prediction of pattern and process that arises out of the testing of formal hypotheses. Of course, the two need not be a dichotomy; exploration can be a subset of science. Some take a stricter view in which science is restricted to deductive approaches (theory yielding hypotheses that are tested with observation and experiment). We, on the other hand, feel the inductive approach is a valuable part of science as well (observations eventually emerging into a pattern that yields hypotheses).

There is precedent for this in other fields. Consider alpha taxonomy (the description of new species), for example, which is where one of us [para_sight], started his scientific career. The first step to cataloguing new biodiversity is to go out there and collect some samples and take a look; it really is that simple! As the taxonomy builds, you have to go out ever further and look ever closer, but the process is the same and it is generally NOT built on specific hypotheses, despite how it may be stated in grant applications ;) Alpha taxonomy is exploratory research in exactly the same way as Cameron's deep sea mission. He dove to the Marianas Trench in search of new life, whereas para_sight dissected the guts of fish species that had never been necropsied before in search of new species of parasitic worms. We don't think anyone would argue that taxonomy is not science, so why would deep sea exploration not also be?

" Which is a better investment, science or exploration? The question is almost as old as the space program itself, and answering it won´t get any easier as humans move toward establishing a lunar base. But could science be an inevitable outgrowth of exploration?"
- David Tenenbaum

We agree with this view that exploration is simply the inductive first step towards more formal deductive science, which brings us to first reason why we should explore:
1. Exploration is about observation, the first step of the scientific process. Without exploration we do not have the intellectual fodder for scientific discovery 2. Exploration is about knowledge, about expanding our horizons and answering questions that we haven't even thought of asking yet 3. Through exploration 4. Exploration leads to technological and engineering innovation as we strive to meet new challenges. we can gain knowledge about earth, life, and potentially other planets. 5. To explore the unknown means discovery with ramifications unseen.
We may not even know what we should be asking! :

Thus:
6. Through exploration, nations become great.
Of course exploration also has immediate and tangible benefits. Doing new things means doing them in new ways and, necessity being the mother of invention, technology advances hand in hand with exploration:
7. A humans we are a naturally curious species, we deny our humanity if we do not explore the unknown world around us. 8. Exploration allows for the unification of humanity around great achievement. 9. Exploration allows us to inspire others to be explorers and scientists. 10. We should explore because it's cool, awesome, and amazing.
And of course exploration through all of the above means we cannot begin to fathom what it may yield:

"Throughout history, the great nations have been the ones at the forefront of the frontiers of their time. Britain became great in the 17th century through its exploration and mastery of the seas. America's greatness in the 20th century stemmed largely from its mastery of the air."- NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. ""I believe America should look to its future - and consider what that future will look like if we choose not to be a spacefaring nation."

Undoubtedly one metric of society is its culture of exploration of new frontiers in space, technology, Earth but in the arts and sciences in general. Put simply:

We should visit the moon or trench simply because we have not been there before or not been there enough. To not go is to deny our very nature. We should go because we are driven to rise to a challenge presented:

To meet the obstacles, both seen and unforeseen, of exploration requires the dissolution of borders, barriers, languages, and dispute. We must cooperate.

Importantly, how do we excite the public and youth about technology and science? How many kids wanted to be astronauts when they grow up? How many wanted to be marine biologists because they saw Cousteau exploring the oceans? If we want to inspire in education and get away from standardized tests and No Child Left Behind, we need to offer new heroes and new dreams. STEM may be about math, technology, and science, but it all starts with inspiration:

As we write this we feel that the most important one, which we save for last, nobody ever states seriously. Sure all these others are important but they do not touch the core of why exploration is important. We will no longer be ashamed or apologetic about the fact that:

And given the opportunity any of us would have traded places with Cameron.

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10 Reasons Why We Should Explore The Deep

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This post is co-authored by Craig McClain and Al Dove Among both scientists and non-scientists there is skepticism about James Cameron's "Deep Sea Challenge" dive into the Marianas Trench on Sunday and what it really achieved for society.

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The findings can help scientists to address both current situations and to predict the future situations that may emerge. By supporting the ocean you could save life's in that second or two you had just by looking at the invention you built.

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*By discovering and understanding these ecosystems, we can unlock cures to diseases, grow new foods, discover new medicines, create new industries*
*By investing in the oceans you can help create cures, new food, and make new jobs*

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This week marks the 10th Annual World Oceans Day, a global confluence of ocean-awareness events intended to bring our oceans the level of public attention they deserve. As we both have had the opportunity to explore a fair amount of our globe's seas, on this occasion we'd like to share our excitement and our vision for the future.

Ray Dalio (@raydalio) is the founder of Bridgewater Associates and the OceanX initiative. Marc Benioff (@benioff) is CEO and chair of Salesforce, as well as founder of the Benioff Ocean Initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

To us, the ocean is humanity's most important and most under-examined treasure. While the world below the ocean's surface is more than twice the size of the world above it and contains an estimated 94 percent of the space where life can exist on Earth, only 5 percent of the world's oceans have been fully explored.

The ocean is critical to human life-more than 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe comes from it. It drives our weather, provides a nutritious food supply, and is a key source of commerce, supporting more than 28 million jobs in the United States alone. For those reasons, it deserves our reverence and protection. Instead, humans neglect it and treat it like a toilet that we overfish from.

We believe ocean exploration is more exciting and more important than space exploration. Yet it only receives about one-one hundredth as much funding. We want to change that by showing people the ecosystems and underwater habitats across the globe that are brimming with unexplored environments filled with species that have evolved in ways we cannot possibly imagine. By discovering and understanding these ecosystems, we can unlock cures to diseases, grow new foods, discover new medicines, create new industries, and fully understand our planet. The possibilities are endless, if we choose to open the door to them.

Thanks to profound technological advancements in recent years, we now have the potential to open these doors like never before. Using new sensors, submarine technology, and autonomous vehicles, humans have the opportunity to advance the public's understanding and appreciation of the ocean, much as the development of scuba equipment and underwater cameras allowed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau to captivate the world 50 years ago.

Using many of these technologies, the BBC's recent Blue Planet II inspired a new generation of explorers to turn toward the ocean and prodded public policymakers to introduce new measures to prevent plastics pollution. When it sets sail next year, the Alucia2, a new vessel funded by OceanX, will be the most advanced vessel designed for both media production and cutting-edge scientific research, bringing the excitement of ocean discovery to the world as broadcast and digital programs and in real time.

Exploring our oceans is key to protecting them. As renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle has said, "Far and away, the biggest threat to the ocean is ignorance." Exploration is the key to ending that ignorance and making the oceans accessible, tangible, and exciting to the broader world so that people will understand and protect them.

Creating such understanding will ensure we don't lose the richness of the biological assets in our oceans before they are even discovered. Protected areas, such as Papahānaumokuākea and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monuments, serve as savings accounts that protect strategic areas of our ocean for future exploration and discovery while simultaneously producing more fish, food, and income for fisheries.

Even as we begin to explore the most remote reaches of our oceans, we are finding them sullied-with trash detected at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of our ocean, and floating in the most remote regions of Antarctica. This signals we must act now to ensure we discover more than plastic bottles during this next generation of ocean exploration.

There are many great government and non-profit organizations, philanthropists, scientists, and entrepreneurs doing critical and unheralded work to protect our oceans-but they need more support. Not just in the form of funding, but in the form of public energy and momentum.

One positive sign is that world leaders at the G7 Summit in Canada today are prioritizing ocean health, calling for aggressive measures to combat plastic pollution and climate change. We need this interest to translate into a firm G7 stance on oceans. And we need this ripple of leadership to turn into a tidal wave of public, private, and community support for securing the healthy future for our oceans upon which we all depend.

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It's Time for the Next Wave of Ocean Exploration and Protection

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This week marks the 10th Annual World Oceans Day, a global confluence of ocean-awareness events intended to bring our oceans the level of public attention they deserve. As we both have had the opportunity to explore a fair amount of our globe's seas, on this occasion we'd like to share our excitement and our vision for the future.

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*"The information then can be used to know what to do in order to protect the ocean, make them still around for the future generations to enjoy."
*By investing in ocean research we can save the planet.

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