"If you compare NASA's annual budget to explore the heavens, that one year budget would fund NOAA's budget to explore the oceans for 1,600 years"

This quote by Robert Ballard is stressing the importance of exploring the oceans. He is explaining that the quantity of money that NASA gets in one year to check out the paradises suffices to fund NOAA's budget plan to check out the oceans for 1,600 years. This contrast is indicated to demonstrate how far more attention and resources are provided to space exploration than ocean expedition. Ballard is recommending that more money and effort should be put into checking out the oceans, as they are simply as crucial and mystical as the heavens. He is likewise highlighting the reality that the oceans are greatly understudied and underfunded, which more research requires to be carried out in order to understand them much better.