Sam Farr: “I think what happens now, according to a spokesperson for the Navy that I talked to several years ago, was that we have…”

“I think what happens now, according to a spokesperson for the Navy that I talked to several years ago, was that we have dozens of Navy research vessels which are owned and operated by the Navy, but the operators are mostly contract marine scientists, marine biologists who go out and do the deep ocean exploration and near shore exploration. When we go into these economic zones of other countries we have to go there with their permission. These are military vessels, and without signing a law of the sea, we have no protocols for, if a country decides, well, we think you are spying on us or we think we do not like the work you are doing or you are not sharing it with us enough. There are always efforts to do that, but nonetheless, if there is a problem, we have no way of getting out of the problem because we are not a signatory to the treaty which lays out a protocol for what we can and cannot do with these research vessels, and that, if indeed there is a question, how we can resolve those disputes. So we could conceivably get into a military situation because of a seizing of one of our research vessels which has nothing but scientists aboard, and that should be avoided. We need to sign the law treaty as soon as possible.”