499 



THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES 



Outside the Federal structure, the National Academy of Sciences 

 (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), through 

 their committees on oceanography and ocean engineering, respectively, 

 have served as a source of scientific advice to Government agencies on 

 ocean affairs. Toward the end of 1970, the two Academies reorganized 

 their ocean policy structures, raising them to the board level. The 

 National Academy of Sciences' Ocean Affairs Board became admin- 

 istratively lodged in the National Research Council's Division of 

 Earth Sciences, replacing the Committee on Oceanography, and the 

 National Academy of Engineering redesignated its Committee on 

 Ocean Engineering as the NAE Marine Board. The NAS board is 

 concerned primarily with science-related ocean problems, and NAE 

 board with engineering-related problems. Appointees from both 

 boards make up a new ad hoc NAS-NAE ocean affairs planning group 

 to coordinate ocean studies and advisory services of both boards. 



The NAS Ocean Science Affairs Board focuses on at least three 

 areas : Ocean sciences, ocean resources, and international marine sci- 

 ence affairs policy. In addition, the Board serves as the U.S. Com- 

 mittee for the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research of the Inter- 

 national Council of Scientific Unions. 



The NAE Marine Board comprises panels which cover such func- 

 tional engineering areas as transportation, construction, resource de- 

 velopment, and instrumentation. It serves as the U.S. committee 

 for the Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources, now affiliated 

 with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations. 80 



Formulation of U.S. Policy for the Seabed 



LEGISLATIVE CONCERN IN THE 9 0TH CONGRESS 



Reaction in the 90th Congress to the Malta proposal was immediate 

 in the face of imminent and possibly hasty action by the U.N. General 

 Assembly. About three dozen resolutions were introduced in the House 

 and the Senate, mostly in opposition to vesting control over the 

 deep ocean resources in the United Nations. House resolutions were 

 for the most part identical, expressing the sense of Congress that any 

 action at that time to vest control of deep ocean resources in an inter- 

 national body was premature and ill advised, and that the Congress 

 should memorialize the President to instruct the American represent- 

 atives to the United Nations to oppose any action to vest in the United 

 Nations control of the resources of the deep sea beyond the continental 

 shelves of the United States. 



Hearings were held in the House by the Committee on Foreign Af- 

 fairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements, 

 in September and October 1967, and jointly with the Subcommittee on 

 Oceanography of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and 

 Fisheries in June and July 1968. 81 In the Senate, the Committee on 



80 News Report, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, National 

 Academy of Engineering. (Vol. XX, No. 9. November 1970.) 



81 U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. "The United Nations and the 

 Issue of Deep Ocean Resources ; interim report together with hearings." Held by the Sub- 

 committee on International Organizations and Movements of the * * * on H.J. Res. 816 

 and companion resolutions. Sept. 22, Oct. 10. 19, 25, and 31. 1967. 90th Cong., first sess. 

 H. Rept. No. 999. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), 289 pages. 



