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the State; and the development, passaqe, and enforcement of restric- 

 tive use regulations and provisions plus the need for assistance in 

 five areas: technical, scientific, legal, administrative, and last, 

 but not least, additional funding of estuarine-related activities. 

 For this assistance and coordination the States look to the Federal 

 Government (as detailed later in this chapter) but first, they 

 must fully utilize their own capabilities. 



In an evaluation such as this it is very easy to let details and 

 complexities overshadow and even obliterate the basic concept. A 

 simple, though often and easily forgotten basic concept or common 

 denominator in estuarine management, is that if estuarine uses are 

 not controlled, regulated, planned, or guided, then the undaunted 

 exploitation, by whomever happens to be there, continues and the 

 estuaries are not managed for the maximum benefit of the population; 

 this is against the public interest. As expected, the States consider 

 it to be their responsibility to control their estuarine uses. How- 

 ever, if this responsibility is not adequately assumed by the States 

 then the responsibility to prompt them into action must emanate from 

 a source other than their own initiative -- in this case, the 

 Federal Government. The chance that the responsibilities for man- 

 aging the estuaries would revert to the local level are highly 

 remote because generally local governments have fewer capabilities 

 than State-level governments. It follows then that if the respon- 

 sibilities cannot be assumed by the State government they also 



