The selection of offshore lands for leasing, determination of their fair- 

 market value, supervision of drilling activities, and prevention of environ- 

 mental degradation became focal points of nationwide attention last year. 

 For the first time, the Secretary of the Interior revised the regulations gov- 

 erning leasing and the production of oil and gas on the Outer Continental 

 Shelf. (See ch. III.) And, following the oil well blowout on a Federal lease in 

 Santa Barbara Channel early in 1969, the President appointed an ad hoc 

 Oil Spill Panel which subsequently issued two reports assessing the hazards 

 of oil spills and recommending revisions in Federal minerals policies which 

 would afford greater protection to the marine environment. (See ch. III.) 



Activities of Other Agencies 



In addition to Department of the Interior programs specifically oriented 

 toward marine minerals development, many other departments and agen- 

 cies support closely related activities. Through its Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, the Environmental Science Services Administration conducts bathy- 

 metric and geophysical surveys of the continental shelves and deep ocean 

 areas. The bathymetric charts are used by both the private and public sectors 

 as base maps upon which seafloor geology, subfloor structure, and potential 

 mineral-bearing areas are overlaid. For this reason, the selection of geo- 

 graphical areas is closely coordinated with the offshore mapping programs 

 of the Geological Survey. A long-range mapping program has been developed 

 for the entire continental shelf of the United States with annual priorities 

 determined to a large extent by the immediate requirements of the various 

 users. Maps have been published recently for areas of the California and 

 Oregon coasts, and others are being prepared for parts of the Gulf of 

 Maine and for the sea floor off North Carolina. 



ESSA is also pursuing a program of scientific exploration and mapping 

 (SEAMAP) designed to complete the mapping of 30 percent of the world's 

 oceans, primarily the Eastern North Pacific and most of the North Atlantic, 

 in the 1980's. The output of this program will be 1 : 1,000,000-scale maps 

 showing the bathymetry and the geophysical and geological properties of the 

 sea floor. Last year, a bathymetric map with geophysical overlays was pub- 

 lished for Norton Sound, Alaska. In addition, ESSA's environmental predic- 

 tion services aid all Federal and non-Federal sea-based operations undertaken 

 to understand and develop mineral resources. 



The Navy conducts geophysical surveys on the U.S. continental margins 

 as well as in the deep ocean in response to defense requirements and makes 

 most of these data available to the public. In addition to last year's regional 

 study of the Gulf of Mexico carried out cooperatively with the Geological 

 Survey, the Navy is currently conducting surveys of the Eastern and Western 

 Test Ranges off Florida and California. Evidence of saltdomes — typically 

 shallow water structures often associated with petroleum and sulfur — was 

 found during a joint Navy-university geophysical survey of a 15,000 square 

 mile area off Northwest Africa in water depths up to 18,000 feet. Together 

 with recent findings of similar structures at unexpected depths in the Gulf 

 of Mexico, off the Grand Banks in the northwest Atlantic, and in the Medi- 



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