107 



Mr. EiCHELBERGER. Germany is unhappy with the division she is 

 receiving. She has a case before the World Court sometime next year 

 asking for a larger share from the others. 



Mr. Fascell. While we are discussing this, what troubles me is how, 

 even imder the Convention, the coastal states could get together and 

 carve up the North Sea and start licensing exploration. 



Mr. EiCHELBERGER. It was all continental shelf. 



Mr. Christy. In the North Sea it was all continental shelf except 

 for a trough off of the cost of Norway, which goes below the 200-meter 

 isobath, and in the agreement they reached it states they decided to 

 ignore this trough and give Norway access to the rest of that shelf as 

 if that trough did not exist. 



In terms of the resources beyond, my remarks were limited almost 

 entirely to the manganese nodules on the sea floor, which is generally, 

 I believe, beyond the area where oil resources may occur. 



And the question of urgency is not as great there at the moment 

 except that I understand that an application for a lease is now before 

 the Interior Department for rights to exploit the mineral resources of 

 the sea floor off' the Blake Plateau which is in waters of 3,000 feet, 40 or 

 50 miles off the coast of Florida. 



This may be beyond the concept of incremental steps down the 

 slope, it may be considered a jump out to deep water and how that is 

 resolved, I don't know. This is the kind of situation that is cropping up 

 on which some rule will have to be established. 



Mr. Fascell. Mr. Danzig? 



Mr. Danzig. Mr. Chairman, the article that you read from the Oil 

 and Gas Journal addressed itself solely to an area, as Mr. Christy 

 explained, that involved the Continental Shelf and there this midway 

 doctrine or treaty among nations would apply. 



Going back to your question of new developments — I don't know 

 whether you observed in the New York Times about 2 months ago, 

 and I would be glad to supply the committee with the article — ^there 

 was a tremendous discovery made in the bed of the Red Sea beyond 

 the continental shelf. It was estimated that the minimum value of the 

 minerals discovered there was $1.5 billion and the legal status of these 

 minerals was undetermined. 



Another vei-y interesting advance in the field that I observed re- 

 cently was the fact that the Newport News Shipbuilding and Docking 

 Co. was granted a patent by the U.S. Patent Office. This appeared in 

 the New York Times in late August of 1967. The patent was for a 

 ship to mine manganese nodules in the ocean depth, so that this tech- 

 nology is proceeding at a very fast rate. 



There are other authorities who feel that within the near future it 

 will be possible to mine the manganese nodules which Mr. Christy has 

 discussed. 



Mr. Fascell. Well, Mr. Danzig, the Treasury is not far behind the 

 new technology. The Treasury has already ruled, I believe, that re- 

 sources taken from the continental shelf are taken from the territory 

 of the United States. Wliat is that ruling ; do you know ? 



Mr. Christy. It is that resources beyond the continental shelf shall 

 be subject to import duties when brought in. 



Mr. Fascell. Is that a Tariff Commission decision or a Treasury 

 ruling, do you know ? Maybe we can get that. 



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