282 



Current international law encourages the appropriation of this vast area by 

 those who have the technical competence to exploit it. 



The known resources of the sea-bed and of the ocean floor are far greater 

 than the resources known to exist on dry land. The sea-bed and the ocean floor 

 are also of vital and increasing strategic importance. Present and clearly fore- 

 seeable technology also permits their effective exploitation for military or eco- 

 nomic purposes. Some countries may therefore be tempted to use their technical 

 competence to achieve near-unbreakable world dominance through predominant 

 control over the sea-bed and the ocean floor. This, even more than the search for 

 wealth, will impel countries with the requisite technical competence competi- 

 tively to extend their jurisdiction over selected areas of the ocean floor. The 

 process has already started and will lead to a competitive scramble for sovereign 

 rights over the land underlying the world's seas and oceans, surpassing in mag- 

 nitude and in its implication last century's colonial scramble for territory in 

 Asia and Africa. The consequences will be very grave : at the very least a drama- 

 tic escalation of the arms race and sharply increasing world tensions, caused 

 also by the intolerable injustice that would reserve the plurality of the world's 

 resources for the exclusive benefit of less than a handful of nations. The strong 

 would get stronger, the rich richer, and among the rich themselves there would 

 arise an increasing and insuperable dilferentiation between two or three and the 

 remainder. Between the very few dominant Powers, suspicions and tensions 

 would reach unprecedented levels. Traditional activities on the high seas would 

 be curtailed and, at the same time, the world would face the growing danger of 

 permanent damage to the marine environment through radio-active and other 

 pollution : this is a virtually inevitable consequence of the present situation. 



These are the prospects that the world faces, not in a remote future, but as 

 ■an immediate consequence of forces and pressures already at work. 



Can these pressures be restrained through the continuation and normal ex- 

 pansion of the work already being undertaken within the United Nations system 

 and by related inter -governmental bodies? 



Nearly all United Nations agencies are directly or indirectly, actively or po- 

 tentially, concerned with the seas : we have seen that the IAEA has done useful 

 research on the question of radio-active waste disposal into the seas ; ILO is 

 concerned with the conditions of work of seafarers ; FAO and other agencies with 

 fisheries; IMCO and UNCTAD with shipping; WHO has a potential interest in 

 the health of aquanauts. Thei'e are also WMO, UNESCO and other agencies. 



The United Nations itself has been somewhat slow in entering the field ; the 

 basic resolutions are Economic and Social Council resolution 1112 (XL) of 7 

 March 1966. and General Assembly resolution 2172 (XXI) of 6 December 1966. 



The former requests the Secretary-General 

 "to make a survey of the non-agricultural resources of the sea, beyond the con- 

 tinental shelf and of the techniques for exploiting these resources ... (b) ... 

 to attempt to identify those resources now considered to be capable of economic 

 exploitation, especially for the benefit of the developing countries, (c) to identify 

 any gaps in available knowledge which merit early attention, (d) to report on 

 the progress of the survey nt an early session of the Council". 



General Assembly resolution 2172 (XXI) is later in date but vaguer in ter- 

 minology : it 



"Requests the Secretary-General, in co-operation with the United Nations Edu- 

 cational. Scientific and Cultural Organization and, in particular, its Intergovern- 

 mental Oceanographic Commission and the Food and Agriculture Organization of 

 the United Nations and in particular, it Committee on Fisheries . . .". 

 World Meteorological Organization and other inter-governmental organizations 

 concerned, and the Governments of interested member States to undertake a 

 comprehensive survey of activities in marine science and technology, including 

 that related to mineral resources development, undertaken by Members of the 

 United Nations family of organizations and to formulate proposals for (a) en- 

 suring the most effective arrangements for an expanded programme of inter- 

 national co-operation in the exploitation and development of marine resources, 

 (b) initiating and strengthening marine education and training programmes. 



The General Assembly further requested the Secretary-General : 

 ■"to set up a small group of experts ... to assist him in the preparation of the 

 comprehensive survey called for in paragraph 2 above and in the formulation 

 of the proposals . . .". 



and requested that the survey and proposals be submitted to the Advisory Com- 

 mittee on Science and Technology for its conuiients and that subsequently the 



