August 2007 – Rear Admiral Richard West

August 2007 – Rear Admiral Richard West (Retired), the then President of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE) and the PI for the CoML Secretariat and U.S. Program Office

Heather Mannix: What has been the biggest change with Census since you started as PI for the Program Office?

Richard West: I came to CORE in 2002, when we were just starting the international and the U.S. National Committee, and I think the biggest change has been the tremendous growth of both of the programs, from understanding what the Census is all about, to the investment in the research programs, to the growth of our program management here at CORE, which I’m very proud of.

HM: What do you think will be the greatest legacy for the Census?

RW: I think the greatest legacy for the Census will be exactly the stated purpose of the Census; defining what has lived in the oceans, and what lives there now, and most importantly, where we’re going in the future. This has really been the single largest effort to understand the biodiversity of the oceans.  What we do know about the oceans has been relegated to mostly physical oceanography and this has been a big effort to understand a missing piece, the biological piece, which has a big impact on our survival on this planet. So, that’s the biggest legacy, that it started the biodiversity classification of the oceans.

HM: In your opinion, what do you think is the greatest challenge the Census faces as we look towards the year 2010, the end of the first census, and beyond?

RW: Well, we all know here at CORE the big challenge is to keep the funding and the program going. Thanks to the strong support of the Sloan Foundation and lots of other folks who have invested over the years, such as other foundations and the federal government, the program has seen a lot of growth, so the challenge will be to keep up this growth with the ending of Sloan support in 2010. This is, and will be, one of the major program management efforts to come out of CORE in the next few years.

HM: Again, looking at the years leading up to the end of Sloan support in 2010 and beyond, how do you think Ocean Biogeographical Information System (OBIS), the information and data component of the Census, fits in?

RW: OBIS is an important tool that ocean policy people will have to use to determine the policy to manage the resources in our ocean. It is the right mechanism to use for the biological status of our oceans and it should be used by the federal government to manage ocean resources. In order to be used by the federal government, the data has got to be validated and it has to have the right geospatial information datum so it matches up with all the other models the federal government uses. It’s a tremendous tool – a library and source of data for managing our oceans.

HM: Right now there are a number of efforts going on to ensure CoML has long term, sustained support.  Do you think that putting it into a U.S. Federal Agency undermines the international aspect of the Census of Marine Life?

RW: I don’t think so. NOAA is the nation’s operational ocean agency and that’s the right place for the U.S. commitment to maintain a long term investment in Census and OBIS. It has to be lead by a federal agency to ensure long term secure funding for any program with public money. It should encourage the international community too that the U.S. is committed to Census and OBIS.

HM: So you think NOAA is the best place for CoML?

When it comes to managing the oceans in general, NOAA has to take the lead. They are tasked with doing weather forecasting and weather is generated over our oceans. So an ocean observing system combined with an atmospheric observing system is what we should be striving for. NOAA should be the “Environmental Forecasting Agency.”

And, while NOAA should take the lead, management should be done through the National Ocean Partnership Program to ensure that the other 15 other federal agencies, who have an interest in the oceans are a part of the solution.

HM: Switching gears a bit, you’ve had a long career working in the ocean community. So far, what aspects have you enjoyed the most?

RW: Well, obviously going to sea. I’ve worked there all my life and you can’t go to sea as all the years that I have and not be absolutely fascinated with it. I thoroughly enjoyed the ten years that I was the Oceanographer of the Navy and had a chance to look the science part of the ocean. And then to work here at CORE and continue learning about the science of the ocean with the academic and private research institutions has been great. So, going to sea and understanding the oceans where I’ve spent most of my life has been the most enjoyable aspect, but a close second has been working with people that also share the love of ocean. I enjoy being around people like that.

HM: Do you miss going to sea?

RW: Oh absolutely. My time at sea and my ships were a highlight of my Navy career. But that’s for the young folks now.

HM: Speaking of younger folks, what do you think we need to focus on to build the next generation of ocean scientists and leaders?

RW: There’s a huge need to have youngsters get involved now in science and math and then continue into the ocean sciences all the way up to the Ph.D. level so we can better understand our largest resource. My experience in the last few years has been that there are many positions in the federal government that should be filled by those who have a strong background in the ocean sciences. That void has to be filled. As we learn more and more about our oceans and the need to preserve them, those positions will grow. We need to have a new generation that’s motivated to study the oceans.

The “3Rs” – reading, writing and math, throughout high school has really limited the exposure of our youngsters to ocean sciences. There are a lot of biological, physical and chemical sciences taught in high school, but they mostly relate to atmospheric and terrestrial topics. The ocean sciences aren’t a part of the curriculum. At one point I think I was told in a survey we did for the Ocean Commission that the single most popular science elective at Rutgers University is Marine Biology. So, that shows that there’s a lot of curiosity about what’s in the ocean – but it’s not being fulfilled until the college level, and that’s too late. We need get the kids interested at a much younger age, probably junior high.

The more practical problem is that the science standards are set by the state, so it’s hard to change the standards. So, you have to do it through other means, through exciting things like Ocean Exploration and the National Ocean Science Bowl.

HM: If you had a few million extra dollars to put towards any project or any program within the ocean community, what would you use it for? Where do you think it would do the most good?

RW: There are a lot of places I could put it, but I think that I would use it for something that we have not invested in yet and that’s ocean literacy. I am absolutely convinced that if we had an ocean literate society- and I’m not sure what that means exactly, but if we all had an understanding and therefore concern for the preservation for the oceans, at this point the investment in our oceans would be much greater than what we have now, and we would have much better policies in place towards the preservation of our oceans.

So, what do we do? Well we start educating the planet about the challenges, problems and the consequences of what happens if we don’t start doing a better job of preserving our oceans. Because here again, it’s a part of having a generation that understands that the ocean is our largest resource and wants their congressman to do something about it.

HM: With the merger of CORE and JOI into the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, you’ll be leaving us. Any big plans after you leave CORE and the Census of Marine Life?

RW: I am leaving after five and a half years that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I retired as Oceanographer of the Navy on a Friday and I joined CORE on a Monday and I’ve enjoyed every minute of being involved in the ocean research and education community. This is the right time for me to leave. The new organization is standing up and it’s time for a new president/CEO to take on the challenge. And I’m sure he or she will find CORE in great standing. So, I leave very pleased with what we’ve done at CORE. I will definitely miss the staff. I’ve enjoyed growing with the staff and I’ll miss them. In the future I’ll probably try to stay engaged with the ocean community, somehow. I’m not exactly sure what it is yet, I don’t have any definite plans, but when I see the right plan I’ll have a smile on my face.