11-73 



CONCLUSIONS 



The ever-increasing and often conflictinq social and economic demands 

 of modern human civilization are placing significant pressures on the 

 limited estuarine resources of the United States. The delicately bal- 

 anced natural ecology of the estuarine zone has been subjected to over 

 three hundred years of exploitation and alteration; objective analysis 

 of the results of this use and misuse shows that nositive action is 

 needed now to preserve, conserve, and enhance the finite resources of 

 the coastal zone. 



Natural estuarine ecosystems are communities of living organisms exist- 

 ing in reasonably delicate balances determined by definable but poorly 

 understood external environmental conditions. These systems exist only 

 in the geographically and physically limited narrow interface where the 

 land meets the sea; where over one-third of this Nation's present popu- 

 lation and industry is concentrated into 15 percent of the land area. 



This society uses the resources of the estuarine zone and coastal zone 

 to serve not only those social and economic ournoses for which the zone 

 is uniquely valuable such as recreation, fishinn, and navigation, but 

 also to satisfy other requirements of civilization wherever organized 

 human society exists. These uses include industrial, residential, and 

 commercial land development, exploitation of mineral resources and 

 fossil fuels, water supnly, and a nlace to dispose of the wastes from 



