PRESIDENT'S TRANSMITTAL MESSAGE 

 TO CONGRESS 



TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: 



It is with pleasure that I transmit today the report of the Federal Ocean 

 Program. It has been a year of significant accomplishments and continued 

 evolution of new directions to know, conserve, and use the sea. 



A most important characteristic of our maturing ocean program is that 

 we are increasingly viewing our efforts in the marine environment from 

 the fresh perspectives illuminated by our need for its abundant resources 

 and by the necessity to search carefully into the consequences of our actions 

 in its development. We must insure the proper balance of these throug'h meas- 

 ures which are compatible with the long-term maintenance of a healthy 

 marine environment. 



During 197 1, strong emphasis was placed on improvements in the manage- 

 ment of our marine living and nonliving resources, on easing pressures which 

 threaten certain species with extinction, and on enforcement of measures 

 to prevent environmental pollution and degradation. We have stepped up 

 our studies of the ways in which we must manage our coastal zones to 

 protect our fisheries, to make them available for marine transportation, 

 to minimize pollution, and to enhance their recreational values. I have 

 recommended legislation to establish national land use policy programs 

 which include priority provisions for coastal zone management. 



Further, in view of our increasing concern with energy supplies to sustain 

 the Nation's economic growth and the health and well-being of our people, 

 the Federal Ocean Program moved to explore the geophysical and geological 

 character of our continental shelves. It should be recorded that 1971 was 

 the year in which the Federal Government began to move vigorously to map 

 and chart these promising submerged lands and their resource potential. 



A major share of the Federal Ocean Program continued to support vital 

 national defense objectives related to operations in the marine environment. 

 Nevertheless, the major program increases of the past few years and those 

 for the coming year are in the civil sector. Among the imp>ortant accomplish- 

 ments have been the increasing momentum to provide the operational 

 capability for man to do useful work beneath the sea through application of 

 research submersibles and laboratory habitats; the development of a system 

 for the assessment of the abundance and distribution of harvestable living 

 marine resources ; and the designation of the first four Sea Grant Colleges. 



Our efforts to explore the marine environment have been increasingly 

 characterized by the trend toward major large-scale studies conducted by 



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