An Introduction and A Summary 



Our Stake in the Uses of the Sea 



IIdw fully ;uul wisely the United States 

 uses the sea in the decades ahead will affect 

 lirofoundly its security, its economy, its abil- 

 ity to meet increasing demands for food and 

 raw materials, its position and influence in 

 fix' world community, and the quality of the 

 enxironment in which its people live. 



The need to de\elop an adecjuate national 

 ocean |)roo;ram arises from a combination of 

 rapidly converginc' and interacting forces. 



The world population is expected to ap- 

 proximately double by the year 2000, but even 

 a lesser rate of growth would intensify the al- 

 ready serious food supply problem. The need 

 for supplemental animal protein sources is 

 critical and is growing daily. The sea is not 

 the only source of additional protein but it is 

 an extremely important one. 



The United States itself faces no serious 

 [)rotcin shortage, and its rate of population 

 growth shows a promising decline. Neverthe- 

 less, it is exi>ected that l)y the end of the cen- 

 tury the population of our countiy will reach 

 ;iOO to 350 million people and that the Nation 

 will rely increasingly on food from the sea. 



.Vs the population grows, new means must 

 be developed to expand the economy, to gen- 

 erate new jobs and products, and to pay the 

 costs of publicly rendered services. Although 

 land-based activities will continue to domi- 

 nate the economy for many years to come, new 

 and expanded ocean industries offer some of 

 the Nation's most inviting opportunities for 

 economic growth. 



The recent achievements of te-chnology in 

 the sea have focused national attention on 

 ocean resources to a greater extent than ever 

 before. The sea's potential as a source of "food, 

 drugs, and minerals has been much publi- 

 cized, and the oceans have been depicted as a 

 "last frontier"' to be conquered by man. The 

 Commission's appraisal is more modest than 



many of these glowing assessments, but even 

 hard estimates show great possibilities for 

 the future. 



The potential for expanded economic ac- 

 tivities is evident in today's marine industrial 

 operations. Offshore petroleum, gas, and sul- 

 fur recovery attests that the wealth in the 

 land under the sea is available to man; the 

 mining of tin, diamonds, sand, gravel, and 

 shell from the seabed shows the possibilities 

 of recovering other imi)ortant minerals. Deep 

 submersibles and undersea habitats demon- 

 strate the ability of man to live and work 

 imder the sea. Yet technological development 

 for economically important work in the sea 

 remains largely in the future. 



Vital though marine economic develop- 

 ment is, it must be tempered by other con- 

 siderations. There is increasing concern over 

 the need to imderstand our physical environ- 

 ment, of which the oceans are but one part. 

 This concern is based on growing apprecia- 

 tioii that the environment is l>eing affected 

 by man himself, in many cases adversely. It 

 is critical to protect man from the vicissi- 

 tudes of the en\'ironment and the environ- 

 ment, in turn, from the works of man. 



Today, man's damage to the environment 

 too often is ignored because of immediate 

 economic advantage. To maximize the jDres- 

 ent economy at the expense of the future is 

 to perpetuate the pattern of previous genera- 

 tions, whose sins against the planet we have 

 inherited. 



If adequately protected, the sea and shore- 

 line can provide unique and valuable oppor- 

 tunities for recreation. The growth of the 

 country's jsopulation, most pronounced in 

 urban areas along the shoreline, and the in- 

 creased wealth and leisure of many of our 

 people, are creating inexorable pressures for 

 access to the sea. Contamination or destruc- 

 tion of beach, marsh, waterway, and shore- 

 line aggravates these pressures by denying 



