fishermen, shipping interests, the military, environmentalists, and others, 

 request that certain blocks not be leased due to some significant restrictions 

 such as major bottom fish or shellfish concentrations. Successful high bid- 

 ders purchase the exclusive right for 5 years to explore for and develop oil 

 and gas resources on 3 square mile tracts. If they do not actively explore for 

 oil and gas and put it into production, the lease expires and returns to the 

 U.S. government. 



For the Mid Atlantic, the entire sequence of choosing and leasing tracts 

 is explained clearly by a BLM News Release (14): 



A tentative list of 154 tracts totaling 354,816 hectares (876,750 

 acres) is being made available for a proposed sale of oil and gas 

 leases (OCS No. 40) on the Mid Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, 

 the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management an- 

 nounced today. 



This proposed sale is tentatively scheduled for May 1976. 



On March 26, 1975, the Bureau of Land Management asked industry 

 to nominate tracts on which it would like to bid if a sale is held, 

 and also invited other Federal agencies, State and Local govern- 

 ments, environmental groups, and the general public to specify 

 tracts which, in their view, should not be offered in the proposed 

 sale. 



The Mid Atlantic area considered in the call for nominations con- 

 sisted of 1,151 tracts totaling 2.6 million hectares (6.5 million 

 acres). Industry expressed interest in 557 tracts totaling 1.3 

 million hectares (3.2 million acres). 



BLM's recommendation of 354,816 hectares (876,750 acres) was based 

 upon environmental protection and other resource uses, coastal State 

 government concerns, and areas of high interest in oil and gas potential. 



Not included in the tentative tract selection list are 71 tracts which 

 the commercial fishing industry requested be eliminated from lease con- 

 sideration. The decision to eliminate these tracts from the proposed 

 sale offering was made after the fishing industry recommendation was 

 supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of Interior, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmos- 

 pheric Administration (NOAA) in Commerce, and the views of coastal 

 states. 



None of the area now being considered conflicts with known ocean 

 dumping areas. 



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