Growth Patterns in the Nation's Coastal Population 



iCounties bordering oceans and Great Lakes) 



Pet Cent of Nation's 

 Population Living in Coastal 

 Counties 



1800 1850 1900 1950 1960 

 TOTAL U. S. 



use of the sea and shore to a growing 

 popiUation. 



The pollution problem pervades all aspects 

 of our expanding technological society. Even 

 witli stronger abatement programs, it ap- 

 pears likely that pollution will increase 

 alarmingly in the years ahead. Much of our 

 unwanted waste will find its way into our 

 lakes and estuaries and ultimately into the 

 sea. Intensified use of the marine environ- 

 ment is also generaiting its own polluting 

 effects, which must be kept in check in order 

 to preserve the sea for a diversity of human 

 uses. Because the rate of marine-related ac- 

 tivity is increasing very raj^idly, delay may 

 mean excessive, irrevereible damage to some 

 parts of the marine environment, particularly 

 in the coastal zones near the great centers of 

 population and in the estuaries of major 

 rivers. 



The oceans and marine-related activities 

 must be viewed in the context of the total 

 land-air-sea environment. In many ways, the 

 oceans are the dominant factor in this total 

 environment. However, intervention by man 

 in any one element produces effects on the 

 others, frequently through processes we do 

 not yet understand. Mankind is fast ap- 

 proaching a stage when the total planetary 

 environment can be influenced, modified, and 

 perhaps controlled by human activities. The 

 Nation's stake in the oceans is therefore an 

 important part of its stake in the vei-y future 

 of man's world. 



The oceans impartially wash the shores of 

 most of the world's nations, whose interests 

 in the uses of the sea mirror ours. Means for 

 reaching reasonable accommodation of com- 

 peting national interests must be found to 

 achieve efficient and harmonious development 



