B-6 



of conservation measures that we believe are necessary. I 



do think it a valid point, tnat tnere should be m principle 



no exclusion of eventual development of harvesting interests 



— development of interests in the resources by any country. 



PROF. BUCHSBAUM: I'm Ralph Buchsbaum. I'm a retired 

 professor of biology, specialist in invertebrates and 

 ecology; and I am living now in California. 



I'm here for a board meeting of the Defenders of Wild- 

 life. 



I'm speaking now as a scientist rather than as a mem- 

 ber of any particular group. 



I have had an opportunity to look this draft over -- 

 not in great detail but long enough to commend the people 

 that wrote it as being a very reasonable sort of document 



— except I'd like to call attention to the possibility of 

 emphasizing something which seems not to be emphasized 

 sufficiently, in my judgment. 



First of all, you're dealing with a very cold water 

 and a process — a biological process — that's very slow. 

 The temperatures are down close to zero degrees Centigrade 

 or below, and biological events take place at an extremely 

 slow pace. And so any major perturbation on the part of 

 Nature or Man — well, at least humans — might result in 

 irreparable damage or the kind of damage you get in the 

 Arctic tundra or on mountain tops. 



We do not know sufficiently about how fast the Ant- 

 arctic ecosystem can recover from abuse or perturbations. 

 This should be mentioned in the report as an item of concern, 

 The term "fragile ecosystem" I wouldn't want to apply neces- 

 sarily at this stage. But I would predict that "fragile" 

 is an adjective that might well come into this whole scheme. 

 That is the major point. 



The second point is more political. It has to do with 

 the principle of the Tragedy of the Commons. Any new area 



opened up freely to exploitation tends to be overexploited , 



if it is of any value; and the tendency is: "If I don't 



get it, somebody else will." And the result is the degra- 

 dation of that resource. 



