The oceans of Earth are crucial to the quality of life on land. Yet they are mysterious, dangerous, and unexplored. The mission of the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative is to launch a new era of human discovery within the world's oceans through electrical power and high speed internet connectivity in large portions of the global ocean. Land-based scientists, engineers, educators, and the public will remotely interact with ocean events as if they were actually in the ocean environment-events such as erupting volcanoes, migrating fish, major earthquakes and storms, powerful currents, blooms of microscopic life, and subtle climatic variability. See www.ooi.washington.edu and click on "Press Release."