Ocean Remains a Mystery The project, involving scores of institutions around the globe, is expected to cost upwards of $1 billion, and it will take at least 10 years. It is being compared in scope to the Human Genome Project, or the exploration of one of our neighboring planets. Why such an ambitious project to learn more about something that, one would think, we already know a lot about? Because we dont, according to Barbara A. Block, professor of marine sciences at Stanford Universitys Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif. We dont like to tell anyone were ignorant about the oceans, but we are, says Block, who chaired a meeting of 60 scientists at the Hopkins center earlier this month to chart the initial course of the project. The project was jump-started by a $5 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of New York City, but most of the funding will have to come from government agencies and private contributions. One prime example of just how little we know about marine life is the blue whale, possibly the largest animal ever to inhabit the Earth, Block says. The lifestyle of a creature that can grow to 80 feet long and weigh as much as 300,000 pounds might seem a bit obvious, but the fact is we know very little about the whales feeding, breeding and migratory habits. Thats probably one reason the blue whale has been placed on the Endangered Species List, along with another target of the project, the bluefin tuna, that can weigh as much as 1,650 pounds and bring a hefty price of $80,000 in Tokyo.  A Bit Like Space Exploration Using new tagging technologies, Block and her colleagues recently discovered that the Atlantic bluefin tuna leads a difficult life, traveling from New England to the Mediterranean to spawn, hunted all along the way because of its prized flesh. That earlier success, along with similar stories involving tagging of northern elephant seals, convinced scientists that the technology is now available to survey all the worlds oceans and compile a data base that will be available to scientists, lay persons, and students alike. Findings will be posted on the projects Web site, (http://core.cast.msstate.edu/censhome.html). Studying the deep seas is a bit like space exploration. It costs a lot to get there, its a hostile environment, and our understanding is sketchy at best. It can cost $1 million, for example, for one research ship to explore one small area for a couple of weeks. So scientists have decided to let their subjects do much of the work themselves. New pop off tagging devices will be attached to several species, including whales, sharks, turtles, and some larger fish. These devices will record every movement of the volunteer, along with sea conditions such as temperature and salinity, for up to a year. Then they will be released from the animal, float to the surface, and transmit huge amounts of data via satellite back to the scientists.  Tags Will Tell the Complete Story The scientists expect most of the devices to fail, because they could get knocked off the animal or simply malfunction, but they believe that if they get data from 30 percent of the tags, that will be sufficient. Miniaturization has reduced the size of the devices down to a level where they will pose no hardship for the host, the scientists say. Some weigh as little as a couple of ounces. They can be costly, up to several thousand dollars for the most sophisticated gadgets. But they will tell the complete story, not just the beginning and the ending like most past tags. The scientists will also rely on a time-proven tagging system, placing tiny recording devices on commercially harvested fish, like salmon, that travel great distances. Hopefully, the fisherman who finds a tagged salmon in his catch will forward the device on to the scientists. The first leg of the project, scheduled to begin in a little over a year, will concentrate on the northern Pacific Ocean. Targeted animals include bluefin tuna, northern elephant seals, blue sharks, the awkward-on-land-but-graceful-in-flight albatrosses (the largest seabird), salmon sharks, leatherback turtles, yellowfin tuna, blue whales, and loggerhead turtles. Other species, including California sea lions and gray whales, may be added later. The scientists hope to tag between 4,000 and 5,000 marine animals in this initial phase of the project. The data will be available on the Web site. That will allow students to follow the progress of a single animal, or scientists to determine which geographical areas are most crucial for the survival of a particular species. Sponsoring agencies include several components of the Departments of Defense, Interior and Energy, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and others. More than 50 institutions, including research universities, are involved. In the end, the scientists hope, the research will tell us much more about a region of the Earth we understand so poorly. That area, incidentally, covers 70 percent of the globe. Lee Dyes column appears weekly on ABCNEWS.com. A former science writer for the Los Angeles Times, he now lives in Juneau, Alaska.  Studying the deep seas is a bit like space exploration. It costs a lot to get there, it's a hostile environment, and our understanding is sketchy at best.  E - M A I L U S Write Lee Dye  A R C H I V E Lee Dyes past columns
- Scientists are gearing up for one of the most ambitious international research programs ever attempted: A decade-long exploration of the world's oceans to unlock some of the most closely held secrets of the creatures of the deep.