41 



the environment, and I think there is going to come a time when we go 

 beyond the point of equilibrium, when we slip over and lose environ- 

 ment in total. To go back to the original statement which kind of set 

 me off, if you will excuse me, the fact that we do have good fishing off 

 Louisiana around the oil wells is because they act like large collecting 

 devices of the undersea systems, but this does not indicate that we have 

 a greater population of fish. 



The second thing is most of the fish on the Continental Shelf are 

 dependent upon the nursery areas in at least some part of their life 

 cycles. If the Louisiana nursery area, its coastal 5 million acres of 

 marsh, is destroyed, then there will be no fish around these oil wells. 



That is a point that a lot of us lose sight of, and I think it is time 

 that we do set up a system. 



It is not going to be easy for those of us regulating to handle this. 

 What we need is someone to stand up with enough courage to say that 

 this type of thing shall not happen, or this has priority, or that has 

 priority. We don't have that now. 



I commend not only the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in the 

 State of Louisiana, but the other State agencies. There are another 

 dozen that have some degree of control o^er these developments. I 

 think it is a well balanced control. 



Certainly anything could be improved upon. I Avould like to expand 

 this. 



Texas will have certain oil operations, and are faced with essen- 

 tially the same problem. Problems will be generated in this particular 

 type of industry, I am sure, in Alaska. 



" 1 have been fortunate to visit up there a couple of times in the last 

 4 or 5 months, not on oil business at all, but one purely a pleasure trip — 

 hunting; another a business trip with some vacation delay en route. 

 But wherever you have these things, as w^e pointed out, and will be 

 again pointed out, I am sure, time and time again in the next day and 

 a half, it is just a process, I believe — and I hate to use the word again — 

 of compromise. 



This is the way we make progress, in compromising. 



Dr. Adams Thank you. 



It is good to see that the level of interest is reflected on the number 

 of hands coming up, increasing as we go along, but the clock runneth, 

 and we have time for one more question from him who gets to the mike 

 first. 



Mr. James M. Tobias. I really would like to make a long statement. 



Dr. Adams. Would you identify yourself ? 



Mr. Tobias. Jim Tobias, from the South Carolina Port Authorit3^ 



There is an old saying that if you saj^ something often enough, peo- 

 ple will believe it is true, and I have to take exception to one thing 

 that Mr. Quarles said, which is in the Stratton Report on page 65. 



That statement is that there is no longer justification for maintain- 

 ing a major port in every major coastal city. 



I am sure that Chairman Garmatz would quarrel with that in the 

 case of Baltimore, and Congressman Lennon would quarrel with that 

 in the case of Wilmington aiid Morehead City. 



I think there is not sufficient time to debunk that whole argument 

 at this very moment, but it is vSort of a shortsighted type of thing that 

 seems to be prevailing where the Corps of Engineers is addressing it- 

 self to the problem of dredging in the harbors of the United States. 



