IV-510 



and physical environment of the estuarine zone, in contrast, obeys 

 natural laws which are equally complex and less flexible than man- 

 made laws. The welfare of American society now demands that man- 

 made laws be extended to regulate the impact of man on the biophysi- 

 cal environment so that the national estuarine zone can be preserved, 

 developed, and used for the continuing benefit of the citizens of 

 the United States. 



To apply man-made laws and regulations to the natural estuarine 

 environment, it is necessary first to understand what natural 

 conditions govern that environment, and then to understand how the 

 socioeconomic and biophysical environments affect each other. Only 

 then can there be developed an institutional environment which can 

 effectively weld all three environments into one smoothly function- 

 ing self-sustaining ecosystem. 





