I understand what studying the ocean can do, however we shouldn't be choosing that over space. Besides this, sciences surrounding the idea of space travel and energy consumption would help the planet far greater than anything in the ocean would. For instance, if we perfected nuclear fusion, we could cut almost all of our emissions. We can get a better grasp of this by studying stars. If we study neutron stars and gas giants like Jupiter, we can understand more about superfluids. A working super fluid could cut our emissions by half as well as help us conduct efficient nuclear fusion. The thing is, ocean floor is new due to plate tectonics. The origins of life will not be found in the ocean. History will not be found in the ocean. I'm not discounting the ocean as a valuable source of science, but I will ardently argue against it being a priority over space.