6 ADVANCEMENT OF MARESTE SCIENCES 



to our shores," John L. Mero, research engineer for the University 

 of Cahfornia Department of Mineral Technology, this week advised 

 the Commerce Commitee. 



Mero is considered by scientists to be one of the Nation's outstand- 

 mg authorities on these nodules and lias been engaged in a university 

 program to recover and process them. He continued: 



Although proposals have been submitted to Federal agen- 

 cies for the past 2 years to obtain minimal support to keep 

 our program alive here at the University of California, we 

 have received no support as yet. 



It seems strange that the U.S. Government will invest 

 hundreds of milUons of dollars to develop ore deposits in 

 places such as Cuba — only to lose the entire investment — 

 but cannot spend a few hundred thousand over tlie years to 

 help develop the vastly greater in size and richer in grade 

 deposits on the ocean floor. In addition to being politically 

 free, these deposits would be royalty-free ores for us. 



We obtain the bulk of our manganese and cobalt from for- 

 eign sources which are sometimes politically unstable. 

 Some of the countries from which we obtain nietals contained 

 in the sea floor ores seem to be politically stal)le. 



However, as these countries industrialize they will tend to 

 consume their minerals themselves and try to sell the United 

 States manufactured products rather than the raw materials. 

 Such is already happening in the case of India and South 

 Africa which are forcing us to take an increasing amount of 

 ferromanganese rather than the manganese ore itself. 



At shallower depths than the manganese-cobalt-nickel nodules, 

 rich phosphate deposits lie on the ocean floor, hi some areas as much 

 as 30 pounds to the square foot. Extensive beds along the southern 

 California coast are only 40 miles from shore. The United States 

 annually imports at high cost more than 1 50,000 tons of crude phos- 

 phates for use on the Nation's farms. 



Beneath the ocean the petroliferous sediments of the Continental 

 Shelf hold an estimutetl 400 billion barrels of crude oil, a treasure as 

 yet scarcely tapped. 



The oceans are the world's great reserves of minerals, chemicals, 

 and liquid fuels. No nation owns them because beyond the Conti- 

 nental vShelf the seas are international — and neutral. As land re- 

 sources in ores and oils eventually become exhausted man will inev- 

 itably turn to the oceans to meet his needs. 



When this time comes the taking will be on the basis of "first come, 

 first served," and by the nation or nations with the necessary scientific 

 knowledge of where these mineral resources are, their composition 

 and values, and the technical ability to extract them from the oceans. 



Two agencies of our Federal Government have the capability of 

 assisting in this endeavor — -the Geological Survey and the Bureau of 

 Mines. 



The Geological Survey, however, is restricted under present statutes 

 to the national domain, which does not include the deep ocean. 



Section 5 of S. 901 would do away with this statutory limitation 

 imposed on the Geological Survey. 



