522 



nological control, hazards of offshore operations are inevitable, and 

 damage to the environment may be long-lasting or irreversible Nu- 

 merous other tenants besides the oil industry use coastal waters The 

 ocean has become the focus of man's attention and hope, not merely 

 for its mineral and petroleum resources, but as a source of food, a pos- 

 sible future habitat, and a major source of the Earth's weather systems 

 and their life-gi vmg processes. Other users of the continental shelf have 

 to recognize and conform with the compatibility of their various ac- 

 tivities It may be in the ultimate interest of all mankind to develop 

 the land areas and explore their subsurface thoroughly, leaving the 

 ocean as clean as possible for as long as possible. 



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

 in view of the fact that technological development is progressing at 

 a rate that has already rendered obsolete the definition of jurisdic- 

 tional limits, legal or otherwise. While this development will probably 

 be limited, for some time to come, to the continental shelf areas, and 

 progress into the deep sea is not alarmingly imminent, the confusion 

 created by the Geneva Conventions, particularly the exploitability 

 clause, might well be eliminated. Definitive political boundaries need 

 to be established for the seaward limit of national jurisdictions. Be- 

 yond this limit, the deep sea areas would then become the common 

 domain of the community of nations. 



The rapid advances in the acquisition of scientific data about the 

 ocean domain, and the spectacular development of technological ca- 

 pabilities to exploit it, commercially and militarily, have directed 

 attention to the potential of ocean resources. As nations have moved 

 toward a policy of leaving ocean space free from national domination, 

 the aspiration has been repeatedly voiced of exploring and exploiting 

 ocean resources for the benefit of all mankind, rather than to benefit 

 the handful of technologically advanced nations. 



The United Nations is the obvious forum to reconcile issues over 

 these resources. A specific plan was offered to the 1 T nited Nations by the 

 delegation of Malta, which called for a declaration and treaty concern- 

 ing the reservation exclusively for peaceful purposes of the seabed and 

 of the ocean floor underlying the seas, beyond the limits of present 

 national jurisdiction, and the use of their resources in the interest of 

 mankind. An ad hoc committee to study this proposal was formed in 

 1967, which became in 1968 the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of the 

 Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor beyond the Limits of National Jiu*is- 

 diction. 



By then the United States Congress had passed the Marine Re- 

 sou rces and Engineering Development Act of 1966 and established 

 the National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Develop- 

 ment; the U.S. Government had begun to coordinate its ocean affairs 

 and formulate policy for participation in international activities. Be- 

 sides the Marine Council, the policy apparatus included committees 

 of Congress, the Committee on International Policy in the Murine 

 Environment, and the present Interagency Law-of-the-Sea Task- 

 Force. Outside the Federal struct lire, the United States sought advice 

 from the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy 

 of Engineering. 



Congressional reaction in the 90th Congress to the Malta proposal 

 took the form of numerous bills and resolutions, some in support and 



