Chapter IX 

 MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE CONTINENTAL SHELF 



Further Use of Shelf Resources 



Ships, oil derricks, sand dredges, and fish-processing plants have been 

 familiar sights to our coastal inhabitants for years, but they represent 

 only the beginning of our mastery of the resources along the thousands 

 of miles of our coastline. The International Convention on the Con- 

 tinental Shelf, which went into force in 1964, added more than 1 

 million square miles to the public lands of the United States as shown 

 in Figure 14, an increase of almost one-third. (This extension refers 

 only to adjacent seabed territory in areas where the ocean's depth 

 is less than 200 metei-s. According to the convention, jurisdiction 

 may extend to even deeper water if the seabed is subject to techno- 

 logical exploitation.) 



Simultaneously, the promise of mineral and fishery resources on 

 the Continental Shelf has attracted increased attention as a source of 

 economic wealth and growth. Our understanding of the distribution, 

 richness, and availability of oil, gas, and mineral deposits on the shelf 

 is still limited, however, particularly with regard to deposits off the 

 Alaskan and northwest coasts. 



The role for private initiative and investment on the shelf must be 

 considered similar to private industi-y's role on land. The petroleum 

 and gas industry has on its own initiative pioneered in exploration 

 and development of the geological resources of the Continental Shelf, 

 and the search for oil and gas has led to the rapid development of many 

 geophysical exploration tools and platforms. In turn, the Govern- 

 ment's role now is similar to its earlier responsibilities in the develop- 

 ment of the West for establishing the administrative, legal, and 

 financial framework, in the public interest, to encourage development 

 of public lands while protecting private investments, and helping 

 to minimize friction between conflicting types of commercial usage. 



The Government already supports programs in geological research 

 and survey and mapping activities, as well as weather and ocean pre- 

 diction services along the coastlines, to assist industrial activities. 

 These support functions articulate closely with the private activities 

 that they serve, and must continue to develop in phase with further 

 utilization of shelf resources. 



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