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Marine science has devoted increasing attention to the deep ocean 

 areas, which for so long were Kttle known and hardly explored. New 

 developments in science and technology now enable us to work in the 

 ocean depths as we never could before. Today we can reach the deep 

 ocean floor; tomorrow our knowledge of what is on and beneath that 

 floor will be significantly broadened. Already we have reason to believe 

 that, some day, we may be able to tap significant sources of wealth 

 beneath the deeper seas. Already we know that activities on and near 

 the sea bottom can have national security implications. We can expect 

 continuing exploration of the frontiers of the lower depths, designed 

 to increase the range of our knowledge and of our capacities for 

 scientific as well as economic and security piu-poses. 



Up to the present this new environment beyond the continental 

 shelf has requu'ed no system of regulation or control. As we penetrate 

 the deep ocean and its floor, new problems are bound to arise. It is 

 entirely logical that — dealing as we are with areas beyond the juris- 

 diction of national states as conceived in the past — the United Nations 

 should be concerned with the subject. Just as the United Nations was 

 utilized in connection with the penetration of outer space, so it is 

 natural for it to be utilized in international consideration of the prob- 

 lems of the deep oceans. There are many differences between these 

 two realms, to be sure; but they are both areas of multilateral and 

 international concern, and, we may hope, of continuing international 

 cooperation. 



In fact, United Nations interest in the problems of the sea is nothing 

 new. The high seas and the resources of the deep have historically 

 been treated as international in character. In the fifties, after extensive 

 work by the United Nations International Law Commission, a num- 

 ber of important Law of the Sea Conventions were adopted at a 

 conference held in Geneva in 1958. One of those conventions deals 

 wdth the Continental Shelf. It gives to coastal states sovereign rights 

 for the piu'pose of exploration and exploitation of natural resources of 

 the shelf, and it defines the shelf as the sea bed adjacent to the coast 

 and beyond the territorial sea "to a depth of 200 meters or, beyond 

 that limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the 

 exploitation of the natiu^al resources of the said areas." 



In 1958, when the treaty was signed, this seemed an adequate 

 prescription for the off-shore activities of the participating states. 

 Today we are tiu-ning our attention increasingly beyond the conti- 

 nental shelf, and there is a felt need for additional guidance mth 

 respect to the deep sea floor. 



In the United Nations, a number of bodies have been studymg 

 marine problems from various points of view. The Food and Agri- 

 cultm-e Organization (FAO) has been concerned wdth the development 

 and conservation of fisheries. The United Nations Educational, Scien- 

 tific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), through the Intergovern- 

 mental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), has encouraged scientific 

 activities in the field of oceanogi-aphy. The World Meteorological 

 Organization (WMO) has looked into the influence of the oceans on 

 the weather. The United Nations Economic and Social Council 

 (ECOSOC) has requested the Secretary General of the United Nations 

 to make a survey of the present state of knowledge of the resources 

 of the sea beyond the continental shelf, excluding fish, and of the 

 techniques for exploiting these resources. 



