95 



The problem of better exploitation of what are called 

 "trash fish" is an important problem. This is probably not 

 an international problem, this is a technical problem and an 

 economic problem. For example, shrimp boats probably throw 

 away and kill 3 to 6 million tons a year. They are 

 perfectly edible fish. When they are trawling for shrimp. 

 The reason they throw them away is they haven't got any 

 space for them in the hold. The shrimp are a much more 

 valuable product than the fish. Somehow the only way to 

 really solve that problem is to have vessels right there 

 while the fishing is taking place so the trash fish can be 

 transferred and frozen, processed maybe right there. 



The military problems of the ocean were not involved 

 really at all in the Law of the Sea negotiations. 



Sharp: Yes, I didn't see any mention of that. They just say the 

 ocean should be used for peaceful purposes, and it isn't 

 entirely for peaceful purposes. Pious declarations. 



Revelle: Marine pollution is a serious subject of in-shore waters, in 

 estuaries, for example, and in coastal waters, not much of a 

 problem in high seas. An example of the problem is in Santa 

 Monica Bay where for quite a long time the city and county 

 of Los Angeles were dumping sewage. Twenty years ago there 

 was a good deal of DDT in that sewage, and the result 

 was it just about killed all the ocean birds, not to mention 

 a lot of other animals. DDT has pretty much disappeared and 

 the whole thing is probably getting better. 



Sharp: The stuff that I saw from the Pacem in Maribus, they spent 

 a lot of time on pollution. 



Revelle: Yes. 



Sharp: Some of the recommendations that they were wanting to make 



to the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of the Seabed, that was 

 really a big topic for them. 



Revelle: I have never been very excited about ocean pollution, 



basically because I'm a high-seas type oceanographer, not an 

 estuarine type. I think that Jacques Cousteau is off his 

 rocker when he says that the ocean is dying. That's 

 complete nonsense. 



The ocean is the world's greatest hole in the ground, 

 and it has been receiving the waste from the land for the 

 last 3 billion years. The wastes are a little bit different 

 now than they used to be, but the ocean is probably just 

 about as good a place to dunp them as any. 



Sharp: We've talked about this kind of in passing, but the BEAR 



Committee and its recommendations on radioactive waste, in 

 things you have mentioned really in passing like the 

 expandable bathythermograph. So the idea of using the ocean 

 as a place to duir^) all kinds of things is acceptable, is all 

 right? 



Revelle: Well, it's acceptable, I think, if you look at the world 



realistically, many things you have to get rid of somewhere. 



