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program should thus strengthen the States' capabilities, lessen the need for 

 Federal intervention, and facilitate integration of planning, conservation, and 

 development programs among diverse public and private interests. 



2. Establishment of Coastal Laboratories 



Steps will be taken toward establishment of coastal laboratories, supported by 

 the Federal Government, to provide information on resource development, water 

 quality, and environmental factors to assist State authorities and others in 

 coastal management. Existing facilities will be strengthened and consolidated as 

 necessary to provide capabilities to — 



— develop a basic understanding and description of the regionally-differentiated 

 ecology of our 13,000-mile coastline ; 



— anticipate and assess the impact on the ecology of alternative land uses, of 

 pollution, and of alterations to the land-water interfaces ; 



— operate coastal monitoring networks ; and 



— perform analyses needed for coastal management. 



Establishment of these capabilities will be phased with the development of 

 coastal management plans to foster State access to environmental data and 

 research capabilities. 



3. Pilot Technological, Study of Lake Restoration 



The feasibility of restoring the Great Lakes with technological as well as 

 regulatory mechanisms will be determined by a pilot study of a lake of manage- 

 able size. Existing environmental technology and techniques will be tested, in- 

 cluding pollution measuring devices, methods of artificial destraficiation by aera- 

 tion, mixing and thermal upwelling techniques, thermal pollution control and 

 enrichment, artificial bottom coating, filtering, harvesting of living plants and 

 animals, and restocking of fishery resources. The program Avill reinforce cur- 

 rent investigations, and bring together additional competence from industry, 

 academic institutions, and Federal laboratories. 



4. International Decade of Ocean- Exploration 



Funding will be provided for the U.S. contribution to the International Decade 

 of Ocean Exploration during the 1970s, proposed by the United States and 

 endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December 1968. The United States 

 will propose international emphasis on the following goals : 



— Preserve the ocean environment by accelerating scientific observations of the 

 natural state of the ocean and its interactions with the coastal margin — to 

 provide a basis for (a) assessing and predicting man-induced and natural 

 modifications of the character of the oceans; (b) identifying damaging or 

 irreversible effects of waste disposal at sea; and (c) comprehending the 

 interaction of various levels of marine life to prevent depletion or extinction 

 of valuable species as a result of man's activities ; 



— Improve environmental forecasting to reduce hazards to life and property 

 and permit more eflScient use of marine resources — by improving physical 

 and mathematical models of the ocean and atmosphere which will provide 

 the basis for increased accuracy, timeliness, and geographic precision of 

 environmental forecasts ; 



— Expand seabed assessment activties to permit better management — domesti- 

 cally and internationally — of ocean mineral exploration and exploitation by 

 acquiring needed knowledge of seabed topography, structure, physical and 

 dynamic properties, and resource potential ; 



• — Develop an ocean monitoring system to facilitate prediction of oceanographic 

 and atmospheric conditions — through design and deployment of oceano- 

 graphic data buoys and other remote sensing platforms ; 



— Improve worldwide data exchange through modernizing and standardizing 

 national and international marine data collection, processing, and 

 distribution ; 



— -Accelerate Decade planning to increase opportunities for international shar- 

 ing of responsibilities and costs for ocean exploration, and to assure better 

 use of limited exploration resources. 



This U.S. contribution to an expanded program of intergovernmental coop- 

 eration reflects four recent developments : 



(1) Increased population concentration along the coasts of the United 

 States and other countries, with attendant threats of harmful degradation 

 of the ocean environment, and increasing demands on the coastal margins 

 and marine resources. 



