The water resource of the global ocean is being tapped for human and industrial 

 consumption as technology permits. The 3-million-gallon-per-day desalting plant 

 being built in California's Orange County is shown here in mockup. 



International Activities 



Today, as new technologies of harvest and converging human needs in- 

 tensify competition between nations, international contact and cooperation 

 become more and more the road individual nations must take to solve 

 their marine resource problems. 



During 1971, the United States pursued resource-related national objec- 

 tives on a number of international fronts, and, as noted in chapter 11, 

 continued work toward the United Nations Conference on the Human 

 Environment, the Law of the Sea Conference, and the IMCO Conference 

 on Marine Pollution. The United States also continued participation in the 

 work of nine international fisheries commissions. 



At the Geneva, Switzerland, summer session of the United Nations Seabed 

 Committee preparing for the Law of the Sea Conference, the United States 

 submitted draft articles on the breadth of the territorial sea, straits transit, 

 and fisheries. It was proposed that a maximum breadth of 12 nautical miles 

 be established for the territorial sea, conditioned upon agreement on a right 

 of free transit through and over international straits. Concerning fisheries 

 beyond a 12-mile territorial sea, it was proposed that high seas fisheries be 

 regulated by international ( including regional ) fisheries organizations estab- 

 lished or to be established for this purpose. A coastal State would be given 

 a preference based on its actual fishing capacity; such preference to be 

 expanded as its capacity expands. On traditional fisheries, the U.S. draft 

 envisioned further negotiation on an appropriate text. Highly migratory 

 fish would be excluded from coastal State preferences. The implementing 

 regulations of the coastal State would apply in any area of the high-seas 



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