"Consider that a single molecule of seawater can and will circulate around the entire world ocean over the course of seven years," Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Calif., noted scientist, ocean advocate and president-elect of the Sea Turtle Society said in a prepared statement about World Ocean Day. Whew! Most business travel schedules seem light in comparison.

It is as difficult to determine exactly how much Americans spend on business travel each year as it is to determine the size of the ocean economy. The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) reports that their membership of more than 2,700 corporate and government travel managers and service providers collectively manages and directs more the $170 billion of expenditures within the business travel industry. Compare that to reports from the National Ocean Economics Project (NOEP) which indicate federal marine expenditures averageed $100 billion per year between 1970 and 2000. Among the marine expenditures, approximately 80 percent are Navy expenditures, 12 percent goes to the Marines, the Coast Guard accounts for 4 percent and the remaining 4 percent is made up of other civilian expenditures. In 1970, that $100 billion represented about 12 percent of the total federal budget. By 2000, that percentage had dropped to 5 percent, with civilian federal marine expenditures decreasing to 0.5 percent during the late 1990s.

Since the cost of fuel plays a significant role in travel costs, perhaps a closer look at the role the ocean surrounding American coasts plays in the U.S. energy debate is in order. According to the NOEP, offshore oil production represents 34 percent of the country's total oil production in 2004 and 19 percent of total natural gas production. Approximately 98 percent of all Outer Continental Shelf leases (more than three miles offshore) are in the Gulf of Mexico.

World Ocean Day was established in 1992 at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a way for organizations and individuals from around the world to come together and celebrate our world ocean. It provides the time to reflect on the ocean's importance in human life and encourages everyone to do something good for our blue planet. For more on World Ocean Day, click here.

Are you a marine or travel accountant? Do you know someone who is? AccountingWEB would love to hear from accountants with "unusual" job titles or job descriptions, for a series of feature articles about the many diverse career paths available to accountants!

Written by Jay Hammond, Managing Editor, AccountingWEB.com
editor@accountingweb.com

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