This award is in support of an one-year visit by Gregory Stone, National Undersea Research Program (NURP), National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, to the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC) in Yokosuka, Japan. Mr. Stone will collaborate with Dr. Hiroshi Hotta and others at JAMSTEC in defining critical research areas requiring in situ experimentation or sampling at ocean depths in excess of 4,000 meters. The submersible system and types of instrumentation and tools that would be needed to accomplish deep-sea science programs will be assessed. JAMSTEC is the Japanese counterpart to NURP and, as an organization, has as its mission the promotion of marine science research and the development of technologies to facilitate that research. In 1989 JAMSTEC launced the SHINKAI 6500, one of the deepest diving manned submergence research vessels in the world. NURP and JAMSTEC have a history of collaboration. Mr. Stone's research stay in Japan should help to focus and coordinate future collaboration between the marine science communities of our two countries.
