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INTRODUCTION 11 



valuable geographic features. It is at the junction of land and sea 

 that most of the nation's trade and industry take place. The 

 effectiveness with which the resources of the coastal zone are 

 used is a matter of national importance. The multiple uses of 

 valuable coastal areas generate intense state and local interest. 

 From 1950 to 1984 the population in coastal counties grew more 

 than 80 percent. By 1995, more than three-fourths of the U.S. 

 population will live within 50 miles of the coastline. 



Coastal waters and estuaries provide food and are the shelter 

 and spawning grounds for almost two-thirds of the nation's com- 

 mercial fish stocks. Oil, gas, and mineral resources in the coastal 

 waters are essential to our national economy and security. Since 

 the first offshore oil well was drilled off California in 1896, nu- 

 merous oil and gas pools have been discovered near our coasts. 



Recent reports of increased pollution of estuarine and coastal 

 waters are cause for serious concern and action. Waste disposal, 

 especially from pipelines, runoff, and dumping at sea, jeopardizes 

 our ocean and coastal waters. The toll that waste takes on the 

 ocean is persistent and growing. The continuing damage to estua- 

 rine and nearshore resources from pollution, development, and 

 natural forces raises serious doubts about the survival of these 

 systems. Better understanding of these systems is essential for 

 good policy decisions. 



Policy decisions concerning these and many other interactions 

 of the ocean with everyday life rest upon a sound scientific under- 

 standing of the ocean. To the extent that such policy decisions 

 are to be useful, they must be consistent with the best available 

 information about how the system works: its physics, chemistry, 

 geology, and biology. Both the government and the scientific com- 

 munity as a whole must ensure that what is known about the 

 ocean is made available to policy makers, that what is not known 

 is clearly stated, and that progress in furthering our basic under- 

 standing continues. 



MAINTAINING EXCELLENCE 



Our nation excels in oceanography. Since World War II, the 

 United States has been a world leader in essentially every area of 

 oceanography. To maintain this excellence will require a talented 

 population of scientists, an informed and educated public, a soci- 

 ety that is interested in and appreciative of new discoveries, open 

 lines of communication between oceanographers and the scien- 

 tific community at large, and economic resources for conducting 



