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Dr. Cain. Not to my knowledge. I can give you some examples that 

 come close to general oceanography, not just fisheries. We are involved 

 in the International Hydrologic Decade, which is underway. 



Mr. Fascell. What is that. Dr. Cain ? 



Dr. Cain. It is a decade of international cooperative effort to learn 

 more about the conditions of water both on the land and in the ocean. 



Mr. Frelingiiuysen. Is this sponsored by the United Nations and 

 when did the decade begin? 



Dr. Cain, The International Hydrologic Decade which began in 

 1965, is sponsored by the International Council of Scientific Unions. 

 This is nongovernmental. Scientific unions are international bodies 

 made up of national societies that have a similar interest. So this is 

 the largest umbrella for strictly nongovernmental work. 



Another example is the International Biological Program which is 

 just getting underway. There are now nearly four dozen nations that 

 have formal programs that are coordinated under international plan- 

 ning. One of the sections of the International Biological Program is 

 on the marine situation. 



We participate with several nations in the Indian Ocean program. 

 It did physical and biological oceanography. It dealt with the condi- 

 tions of the seabed and so on. 



We are also working internationally in Antarctica. Some of this 

 is cooperative work. We have had exchange of scientific personnel with 

 A-essels of other nations. We now have a joint research program involv- 

 ing the two Albatross vessels, one U.S.S.R. and United States, which 

 are doing oceanographic research right at this moment. 



I think the point is, we are already deeply involved in international 

 research, a good deal of which is related to the oceans. 



Specifically, I know of no program being carried on at the moment 

 with respect to the minerals of the deep seabed. There is a proposal for 

 a continental shelf study in the Bering Sea. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. It is not clear to me why there is not more 

 interest if there is anything of real value in the depths. Also, why isn't 

 there already international cooperation to see if there are minerals 

 that would be feasible to extract. 



I suppose the answer is obvious. Possibly there are such tremendous 

 potential assets in the shelves that there is more than enough room 

 to explore and exploit in that area without worrying too much about 

 what goes on in the depths or what might be available in the depths. 



Dr. Cain. You are certainly right that we know more about the 

 continental shelf and particularly the near shore part of the continen- 

 tal shelf, and the exploration and development of that has been ex- 

 tremely productive. This is where most of the investment in manpower, 

 in research and the investment of funds in development will occur in 

 the near future. Because this is so productive, people are looking fur- 

 ther out. 



Mr, Frelinghuysen, Do you foresee national competition, compet- 

 ing national plans, on the shelf and the need for some kind of inter- 

 national effort to prevent such clashes? 



Dr. Cain. I think the situation has been greatly clarified with re- 

 spect to the continental shelf, except for the definition of outer margin, 

 because although the superambient waters are limited to territorial 

 waters or limited agreements beyond 3 or 12 or whatever the mileage 

 is, that the seabed itself is subject to national interest out to this de- 

 fined limit of 200 meters. 



