he main work of protecting Japan's sea-turtle population is carried out by the many volunteer organizations and individuals devoted to this cause throughout Japan. It is impossible, however, to understand changes in the natural environment solely by counting the number of egg-laying events or the number of eggs laid; changes among all coastal fauna must be observed as a whole. We believe that the government must play an active role upgrading this monitoring system as one of its public duties.

The United States is the world's largest maritime trading country. While U.S. built merchant ships accounted for just 1 % of world's newbuildings tonnage in 2000, the U.S. boasts numerous marine technology venture companies carrying out exciting R&D in a variety of new field such as fuel cells. Although the market for ship machinery is considered mature, huge potential exists for tapping new markets through the development of innovations in function and economic performance. Japan needs to explore the possibility of measures to stimulate similar maritime business ventures in this country.

In Europe, the world's leading region in wind-power generation, problems with noise have led observers to predict that wind-power generation systems will increasingly be installed in the sea. From the point of view of preservation of the Earth's environment, the use of "natural" sources of energy needs to be encouraged. We wish to press the case for using Japan's Megafloat in conjunction with floating wind form.