5S 



volumes of hea'\'j' raw materials. Any plan for 

 the use of the coastal zone must seek to ac- 

 commodate heavy industry. 



F'uture shoreline development also must 

 provide for additional transportation and 

 power orenerating facilities. Fi'om tlie Civil 

 War through World War II, a vast network 

 of piers, warehouses, and railroads was con- 

 structed about the perimeters of tlie Nation's 

 ports. Today, these facilities are being re- 

 placed slowly by freeways, airports, special- 

 ized bulk cargo and container loading 

 facilities, and housing. The transition is 

 extraordinarily difficult and will require 

 planning and coordination of public and 

 private activities on a wholly new scale. 



Electrical power production has doubled 

 during every decade of this century. An in- 

 creasing percentage of new power plants will 

 use nuclear fuel, and the disposition of waste 

 heat is an increasing problem. It is estimated 

 that by 1980 the power industry will use for 

 cooling one-fifth of the total fresh water run- 

 oti' of the United States. An increasing num- 

 ber of plants will be located along the shore- 

 line, competing for valuable land, warming 

 the local waters, and posing major threats to 

 the regional ecological balance. 



A decent concern for preserving life's 

 amenities as well as economic considerations 

 demands that more adequate provisions be 

 made for recreational use along the Nation's 

 crowded shoreline. Today, marine recreation 

 ranks high in economic importance (Table 

 3-1) ; according to the Bureau of Outdoor 

 Recreation, by the year 2000, marine recrea- 

 tion in terms of user-days will quadruple. 



Access to the shoreline for the populations 

 that increasingly are concentrated in urban 

 areas along the coasts and the Great Lakes 

 will present a major coastal zone problem. Of 

 all the uses of the costal zone, recreation 

 uses are the most diversified and pose some 

 of the greatest challenges to any coastal man- 

 agement system. 



Offshore Activities 



Fisheries 



Seventy per cent of the present U.S. com- 

 mercial fishing eifort takes place in coastal 

 waters. Coastal and estuarine waters and 

 marshlands provide the nutrients, nursing 

 areas, or spawning grounds for two-thirds 

 of the world's entire fisheries harvest. Seven 



Table 3-1 A Comparative Summary of Recreational Activity 

 in Coastal and Offshore Areas 



Type of recreation 



Swimming 3.3 



Surfing 



Skin Diving 



Pleasure Boating 



Sport Fishing 



Total 52. 8 



77. $3, 260 



$5, 400 



Sot;RrE ; Battelle Memorial Institute. A Study of the U.S. Coa»t and Geodetic Survey's Products and Services as Related 

 to Economic Actiiity in the L'.S. Continental-Shelf Regions, April 1966. 



