484 



are thoroughly explored and their resources exhausted, according to 

 this view, there seems little justification for stampeding to invade 

 the ocean domain, perhaps to cause irreparable damage to its ecology. 

 In the balance of compatible uses of this environment, the demand 

 and the profits have to be carefully and conscientiously weighed 

 against the damage to ecology and the ultimate cost to reclaim it. 



General Policy for Seabed ResoiLrces 



The previous section on the technology and economics of offshore 

 exploitation reveals two distinct situations, one involving the hard 

 minerals and the other involving offshore petroleum. For hard min- 

 erals there is cautious optimism which calls for a policy of encourage- 

 ment toward the ocean domain, although the technology and eco- 

 nomics may not justify deep-sea mining in the near future, and certain 

 other deterrents may hinder the process of decision-making by the 

 mining industry. 



In the case of the petroleum industry, the present abundance of its 

 product is reassuring. Underwater technology is advancing at a very 

 rapid pace, pushing the industry into offshore development at increas- 

 ing costs in most phases of operation. Land resources are still plentiful 

 and relatively less costly; American national security appears in no 

 grave danger, now or in the foreseeable future; and the hazards of 

 offshore operations are becoming a major cause for concern on the 

 national and international levels. There are also numerous other ten- 

 ants who utilize the ocean domain and demand equity and compat- 

 ibility in the diverse uses of this environment. All these factors seem 

 to call for a deliberate and cautious program of offshore exploitation, 

 encompassing a carefully protracted advance within an established 

 sequence of priorities and an acceptable framework of jurisdiction on 

 the national and international levels. 



This go-slow policy is particularly crucial for the continental shelf 

 because technological development there is progressing at a speed that 

 has already rendered obsolete the definition of jurisdictional limits, le- 

 gal or otherwise. It is conceded that development will be confined, for 

 some time to come, to the continental shelf areas, and that progress into 

 the deep sea is not imminent. However, the confusion created by the 

 Geneva Conventions, particularly the exploitability clause, invites 

 review; definitive political boundaries are needed for the seaward 

 limit of national jurisdictions. Beyond this limit, the deep sea areas 

 would then l>e confirmed as the common domain of the community of 

 nations. Whatever regime is suggested for this international deep-sea 

 domain is subject to legal considerations and international approval, 

 but the issue is not as urgent as is the delineation of national jurisdic- 

 tions at this time. 



VI. International Concern 



The rapid advances in the acquisition of scientific data, and the 

 spectacular development of technological capabilities to exploit the 

 ocean domain, commercially and militarily, have compelled a general 

 awareness of the potential of the oceans in living and non-living 

 resources. Countries throughout the world have come to recognize the 

 importance of this domain, and there is at least some indication of a 

 trend toward a policy of leaving it free from national domination. 



