IV-538 



Clusters of activities that require similar environmental conditions 

 but differ in environmental quality needs can be grouped as 

 follows: 1) swimming and associated shore activities, including 

 picnicing and camping; 2) sports fishing from shore or small 

 boat; 3) boat-centered activities, such as cruising or water 

 skiing; and 4) aesthetic appreciation of the total environment. 



The Nation's estuaries provide the physical, social, and economic 

 conditions required for an effective system of water terminals 

 serving international trade and coastal shipping. According to 

 a 1966 inventory of ports and terminals by the Maritime Administration, 

 there were 1,626 marine terminal facilities providing deep water 

 berths in 132 ports on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. 

 The significance of these ports and terminal facilities is indicated 

 by the 1965 statistics which show that these ports handled 

 346,315,000 tons of foreign trade cargo which was 78 percent of the 

 U. S. foreign trade total. In addition, the port facilities handled 

 332.1 million tons in coastal cargo and $288.2 million tons in 

 local shipping. 



The estuarine ports also serve as essential elements of the national 

 defense system. The deep water terminals exert a significant 

 influence on the location of defense installations as well as of 

 the industrial complexes necessary for logistical supnort of the 

 defense effort. A direct indication of the use of estuaries by 

 naval vessels is the total number of ships in commission. During 





