85 



Reveller That's right. 



I guess that's enough for the Indian Educational 

 Commission. It was a tremendous experience for me. 



Sharp: You were on it quite a long time. 



Revelle: Two years. It was only two years. ''64 and ^66. It was an 

 ad hoc commission, it wasn't a permanent commission. I 

 still haven't thought of the name of the secretary. 



What else do you have on your mind? 



Pacem in Maribus and International Law Concerns 



Sharp: Well, this is all tied together, but the Pacem in Maribus 



work and the International Ocean Institute, and then the Law 

 of the Sea Conference itself. I have a lot of trouble 

 figuring it all out. I am not really sure which thread to 

 start on. 



Revelle: Well, the important thing there of course was the UNCLOS, 

 the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. 



Sharp: Which started in '73. 



Revelle: Right. I don't remember when the first Pacem in Maribus 

 thing started. It was about the same time, wasn't it? 



Sharp: Well, the earliest that I could see that you were involved 

 was 1970, but I don't know if you were involved before that 

 or not. 



Revelle: Well, I was at the very first one. That was in Malta. 



Sharp: That was 1970. We can talk about Pacem in Maribus a little 

 bit, and then more generally about the Law of the Sea and 

 some of the issues. 



Revelle: Well, the principal issue, as far as I was concerned, always 

 was, and had been since 1958, what we used to call "freedom 

 of marine scientific research." 



The first United Nations conference in '58 on the Law 

 of the Sea established the concept of the continental shelf 

 and the jurisdiction of the coastal state over the 

 continental shelf. The continental shelf was not, as the 

 oceanographers thought of it, a shallow water terrace an 

 extension of the land. It was just a certain area off — . 



Sharp: It was a political boundary more than anything else. 



Revelle: That's correct. It had nothing to do with depth of water or 

 distance from shore. The shelf was defined basically as 

 that area adjacent to the coast which subject to 

 exploitation. An interesting definition. So it didn't 

 refer much to depth of water or distance from shore, either 

 one. 



