Jakarta, Jan 6 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government will supervise the operations of a US oceanic research vessel, the 'Okeanos', which will undertake studies on Indonesia's undersea geological, biological and mineral resources in North Sulawesi in June.
"We take into account the country's sovereignty when we establish cooperation (with other countries), including cooperation with the United State which will deploy the Okeanos for sea explorations in Sulawesi," Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Wednesday.
Explorations in the Sulawesi Sea by the US vessel, said to be the most modern of its kind, will be supervised by assigning an Indonesian representative on the research ship.
It was reported earlier that the Okeanos is to explore the seas north of Sulawesi starting next June under a 10-year cooperation agreement with the Indonesian government. The explorations will be carried out as a follow-up to a bilateral agreement on cooperation in research, technology and their application in marine resources and fisheries signed on September 18, 2007.
"Departmental permits for the Okeanos to begin its operations in Indonesian waters are expected to be issued by the middle of this year," Marine Resources and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhamad said meanwhile.
The cooperation agreement was valid for a period of 10 years and the first part of Indonesian seas to be studied would be those located north of Sulawesi. "I hope the research will extend to the Bay of Tomini," Fadel said.
Indonesia is rich in unrevealed marine biodiversity resources. So, the cooperation is expected to benefit both sides.
According to Jane Lubchenco, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) coordinator, the cooperation will be started by explorations using the US research ship "Okeanos" in cooperation with Indonesia's research ship Baruna Jaya.
She hoped the explorations will result in new findings, enable the drawing up of maps of the seabed, locate underwater volcanoes and the charting of other things of geological and biological significance.
Indonesia, she noted, was endowed with life forms of enormous biodiversity and many of the species they encompassed had so far remained undescribed. "The explorations will be done in Indonesian seas about which little is known so far," she said.
Hasyim Djalal, an Indonesian expert on law of the sea, acknowledged that many of Indonesia's marine resources had so far remained unknown.
"We are rich in unknown marine resources. Our technology is not yet able to describe them all so that we need cooperation in exploring them. Cooperation had better be aimed at exploring mineral resources," Hasyim Djalal said.
He said Indonesia was rich in marine resources such as minerals, energy and marine species which were not found in other countries. But to make sure whether these resources really existed Indonesia needed to carry out explorations and research to know whether the resources could really be developed in viable economic terms.
Indonesia has actually established research cooperation ties in the marine sector with many countries, including China and Japan. It has also established research cooperation with other countries on seabed research. And cooperation with NOAA is more aimed at mineral research, according to Djalal.
Hasyim Djalal said that mineral resource consisted of two types, namely liquid and solid matter. Solid mineral resources are already known such as tin deposits along the coast of Bangka Belitung but liquid mineral resources under the seas had remained unknown, he said.
As technology continues to advance, it is learned that many strategic mineral resources are found in deep sea mountains. In the Western Pacific, there are at least 50,000 sea mountains. The same number also exists in the South Pacific.
"We know where surface volcanoes are located but don't know where the sea mountains are," he said.
He said the locations of many of Indonesia's undersea mountains were in the Indian Ocean, where the sea current flowed and passed on the seabed and on the sea mountains in the area, leaving mineral deposits. So, in millions of years they produced mineral resources such as gold, nickel and cobalt.
As Indonesia is yet to have technology that could help explain all these, it needs to cooperate with other countries, one of which is the United States.
In regard to the explorations in the North Sulawesi seas, the United States government has been constantly making intensive preparations for its most modern research ship "Okeanos" for the explorations in Sulawesi's northern waters starting in June 2010.
"They have explained what they will be doing in the explorations in the Sulawesi sea with their 'Okeanos' research ship," Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said after receiving US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R Hume in Jakarta Tuesday afternoon.
In the closed-door meeting, it was said that the research vessel was currently still in Hawaii, and will start explorations in mid-2010.
Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has given the green light for "Okeanos" to enter Indonesia's territorial seas to conduct explorations.
US President Barrack Obama fully supported the development of science, which is important to the world and to Indonesia as well, according to Lubchenco.
(T.A014/A/HAJM/19:04/a014)
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