3R 



a. What Is a ''Sea"? 



The resolutions referred to this subcommittee, and the proposal of 

 the Permanent Mission of Malta to the United Nations, use terms 

 whose meaning is neither legally nor otherwise clear. They refer to 

 the ''deep sea'' and the "deep ocean" in the first instance, and to the 

 "seabed" and the "ocean floor" in the other. What do these terms 

 mean ? 



International law, and national claims, defuie "territorial waters" 

 as extending variously 3, or 12, or 200 miles offshore. 



In a somewhat similar manner, the "Continental Shelf," over which 

 limited national sovereignty has been established by the Convention 

 on the Continental Shelf, is defined to include offshore areas up to 

 the depth of 200 meters — or as much farther as modern technology 

 can take us for purposes of economic exploitation. 



With natural resources being collected, and extracted, from the 

 ocean floor lying thousands of feet beneath the ocean's surface, where 

 is the outside perimeter of the Continental Shelf? 



And where does the "deep sea," or the "deep ocean," begin? 



Testimony presented before our subcommittee indicates that as yet 

 we do not have definitive answers to these questions. 



1). What Are the '"Resources"''' of the Deep Seas? 



Both the resolutions and the Maltese proposal concern themselves 

 with the resources of the seas. 



What are these "resources" ? Do they include the use of the oceans' 

 surface for transportation, communications, or other purposes? Do 

 they refer to the fish and the vegetable matter which can multiply 

 in the ocean waters? Are they restricted to the minerals which can 

 be collected off the ocean floors? Or do they also include materials 

 which can be mined below those floors ? 



Again, the precise meaning of the terms which are central to the 

 decisions that the United Nations is being asked to make is not clear. 



Even if we should be able, through some fortuitous meeting of the 

 minds on a global scale, to arrive at the physical and geographic limits 

 of the "resources" in question, how much is really known about them ? 

 Experts who have devoted many years to the study of this subject 

 testified before our subcommittee to the effect that, at present, we can 

 (jnly guess regarding the exact nature, and the extent, of ocean 

 resources. 



c. What Is "Jurisdiction''? 



Another issue raised in the proposal under study pertains to the 

 definition of such words as "control," "jurisdiction," and "sover- 

 eignty." 



Within the context of the proposal advanced by Malta, what do 

 these terms mean ? 



For example, to what extent would international jurisdiction over 

 the "seabed and the ocean floor," proposed by Malta, impair the 

 sovereignty of the coastal states affirmed by the Convention on the 

 Continental Shelf? 



Our witnesses have been unable to answer this question. 



