THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE ISSUE OF DEEP OCEAN 



RESOURCES 



WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1967 



House or Representatives, 

 Committee of Foreign Affairs, 

 Subcommittee on International 



Organizations and Move3Ients. 



Washington, B.C. 



The Subcommittee on Intermit ional Organizations and IVIovements 

 met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10:10 a.m. in room 2172, Eayburn 

 Buildino;, Hon. Dante B. Fascell (chairman of the subcommittee) 

 presiding. 



]\Ir. Fascell. The subcommittee will come to order. 



We meet this morning to continue our hearings on the question of 

 jurisdiction over ocean floor resources. 



In tlie hearings -which we have held thus far, a few facts have begun 

 to emerge with increasing clarity. 



We learned, for example, that the mineral resources located on the 

 continental shelf and the continental slope are potentially so vast 

 that tlieir uncontrolled exploitation could seriously disrupt world mar- 

 kets for certain minerals. 



We alvSo learned that very little is known thus far about the resources 

 located beyond the continental slope— on the floor of the deep sea. 

 While our marine technology is developing rapidly, it has not arrived 

 at the point at which extensive exploration for deep ocean resources 

 and exploitation of such resources is feasible. 



We learned further that the law of the sea is full of ambiguities 

 and voids. That law, for example, does not clearly define the limits 

 to which national sovereignty extends over the adjoining oceans. 

 Neither does that law define with any precision the boundaries of the 

 continental shelves since the international convention on that subject 

 leaves part of the definition to be provided by the changing technology 

 of marine exploration. 



Neither does the body of law define the status of the resources lo- 

 cated on the floors of the deep oceans — more particularly, interna- 

 tional law does not say whether such re^sources belong to no one and 

 are thus available for individual and national appropriation or 

 whether they belong to the human community as a whole and thus 

 ought to be shared by all the members of that community. 



In summary, the information supplied by our hearings to date makes 

 all the more difficult any definite decision on the issue before us. 



To help us pursue our inquiry— and possibly to introduce some ad- 

 ditional complicating considerations — we have called upon the major 



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