Leon Panetta, chairman of the Pew Oceans Commission, applauds a speaker at the New England Marine Economy Forum at Roger Williams University yesterday. Panetta was a keynote speaker.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

BRISTOL — Scientists, business developers, environmentalists, fishermen and politicians might not appear to have much in common. But they united yesterday at Roger Williams University to express their thoughts about New England’s marine economy.

The day-long event touched on a variety of topics, such as aquaculture, naval warfare technologies, tourism and ship building. What linked the seemingly unrelated fields was a call for more collaboration between these different sectors and states.

The forum, attended by more than 200 people, was hosted by Roger Williams University and the New England Council, a regional business and industry advocacy group. The event grew out of conversations with Roy Nirschel, the university’s president, on how to better promote New England’s various marine industries, said James Brett, president of the New England Council.

The next step is to create a “working group” to study New England’s marine economy and offer recommendations on how to improve it, Brett said. The goal is to create an authoritative report that will be submitted to the state legislatures and governors in New England.

The first keynote speaker, Leon E. Panetta, a former White House chief of staff and chairman of the Pew Oceans Commission, discussed the marine economy on a national level. He talked about the poor conditions of our nation’s oceans and highlighted some alarming statistics from the 2003 Pew Oceans Commission’s three-year study “America’s Living Oceans.” Among them:

• 90 percent of “big fish,” such as tuna and swordfish, are gone due to over-fishing.

• 20,000 acres of wetland is lost to coastal development and sprawl each year.

• Every eight months, roughly 10.9 million gallons of oil, the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989, runs off streets into our coastal waters.

• 200 “dead zones” exist underwater in the world, including one the size of Massachusetts in the Gulf of Mexico, due to pollution from the Mississippi River.

“We are in danger to lose the wildlife in our oceans,” Panetta said. “That’s a real threat.”

The nation’s oceans and coastal regions generate about $138 billion in economic activity, Panetta said.

His recommendations for changing the situation include establishing a national government policy for oceans, promoting regional governance of waterways and increasing ocean research funding.

“If we can spend billions to research life on other planets, we can spend more to save life on this planet,” Panetta said.

The call for more ocean research was echoed by the second keynote speaker, James R. Luyten, president of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

While the country has the National Weather Service and a large network of computers and monitoring stations to predict the weather, Luyten said, there should be a comparable system to monitor oceans.

He noted that there are some phenomena that scientists do not fully understand, such as the Atlantic Ocean version of El Niño, the North Atlantic Oscillation, which leads to milder, wetter winters. An ocean observing system would allow scientists to improve climate change and weather predictions and monitor the ocean’s activities.

“Our problem is seeing the entire picture, all the moving parts, not just year-to-year, but over longer time scales,” Luyten said. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is writing a proposal with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Oregon State University to apply for a National Science Foundation program to create an ocean observing network.

Other speakers yesterday included U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Timothy Keeney from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jody King from the Rhode Island Shellfisherman’s Association, John Riendeau from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, and Timothy Scott, director of Roger Williams University’s Center for Economic and Environmental Development.

Attendee Bill Silkes, president of the American Mussel Harvesters Inc., a shellfish business in North Kingstown, said the event provided insight into national and regional marine issues. He also said it was a good chance to network with people interested in the marine economy.

Silkes agreed that more research should be done on the ocean, “but the information has to be relevant,” he said.

For Gianne-Rae Gilmore, the assistant managing director for Connecticut’s Department for Economic and Community Development, the forum provided an opportunity to meet her counterparts in other states and learn more about marine and economic programs in other communities.

“It’s a good idea to get the states talking,” she said. “States or [other marine-related] organizations might be able to work together to make New England stronger.”

It is unclear if the forum will turn into a yearly event, said Susan Rivers, a spokeswoman for Roger Williams University. However, yesterday’s presentations and other information will be posted on the Internet.

For more information about “Promoting New England’s Marine Economy,” visit www.rwu.edu/sites/marineforum.

Michelle J. Lee is a fellow with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting.

mlee@projo.com