WEBVTT

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We sort of think of the Pacific Ocean as being this enormous, vast watery realm that will never be exploited fully.

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You know, you have some fishing boats here and there,

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but you go out onto the bow of the ship when we’re transiting and you see nothing but water everywhere.

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If you’re only thinking about now, or if you’re only thinking about 10 years or 20 years from now, you’re not thinking about it right.

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Because, the way technology is developing right now, in maybe a hundred years, or even 500 years, which is nothing,

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you could have all types of companies and all types of entities that are exploiting the deep sea in the Pacific,

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in areas that we could never dream of right now.

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We have to think ahead. And we have to think of protecting resources well in advance of exploitation.

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That’s what we’re trying to do with this particular cruise and I think that’s the value in it,

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we’re trying to find out what’s down there and we’re trying to find out how valuable those monuments are and

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we’re trying to justify their existence by showing what they’re protecting, so that hopefully they’ll persist for a very long time.

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CAPSTONE stands for the Campaign to Address Pacific Monument Science,Technology, and Ocean Needs.

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And it is an initiative that was created by the Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.

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And the initiative was designed to come out to the Pacific and do something very, very worthwhile out here,

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which of course is to do some deepwater exploration in the monuments.

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If we just look at the monuments and how much they’ve been explored, well, tomorrow will be the very first deepwater dive in the Wake monument.

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I know of no other dive that’s ever been conducted in Wake.

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So that gives you an idea of how little is known.

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It’s completely unexplored. And the vast majority of those monuments are completely unexplored.

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I think right now, we are doing what we need to do here.

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We actually have to go into these monuments and start looking and seeing what they’re doing,

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and prove to the world that they’re a good idea.