36 
Program of Oceanic Exploration and Research (LEPOR) which 
ancludes pollution-related research. Another program just instituted 
under the IOC is the Global Investigation of Pollution of the Marine 
Environment (GIPME). This program encourages and coordinates 
national scientific research efforts dealing with sources of marine 
pollutants, their distribution and geochemical cycling in the oceans, 
effects on marine organisms, and impact on the marine environment. 
The Integrated Global Ocean Station System (IGOSS), sponsored 
by IOC with the cooperation of WHO and other organizations, is 
expected to facilitate global monitoring arrangements. 
From its inception in 1959, IMCO has been responsible for col- 
jecting and disseminating technical information on oil pollution as 
well as administering the 1954 Oil Pollution Convention. This Con- 
vention has since been amended through conferences convened by 
IMCO. As the amount of marine pollution continued to increase the 
Maritime Safety Committee of IMCO set up a special Subcommittee 
on Oi! Pollution in 1965. As problems from other forms of ocean pollu- 
tion became evident, this subcommittee was renamed the Subcom- 
mittee on Marine Pollution. 
U.N. organizations have been active in the past and have had 
several accomplishments in coping with the problems of marine 
pollution. These activities, summarized in Appendix III, include a 
number of international conferences and conventions on pollution of 
the seas. 
Oil Pollution Convention of 1954 
Little actually came of the Washington Conference of 1926 and 
it was not until 1954 that the next international conference on marine 
ollution was held under the auspices of the United Nations in 
ondon. This conference produced the International Convention for 
the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil which was opened for 
signature in May 1954 and entered into force July 1958.°7 The 1954 
Convention adopted the zonal concept promoted in the 1926 Con- 
ference wherein oil discharge was limited but not prohibited. This 
zone extended 50 miles from the coast. No provision was made to 
control oil discharge outside the coastal zones. Enforcement was left 
in the hands of the state of registry. States were required to provide 
equally severe penalties for unlawful discharge outside their own 
territorial waters as within them. 
1962 amendments.—In 1962 amendments were adopted to the 
1954 Oil Pollution Convention making the restrictions on oil dis- 
charge more stringent. These amendments extended the prohibited 
zones outward to 100 miles (150 miles in the case of Australia) and 
prohibited new ships of more than 20,000 tons, begun after the effective 
date of revision, from discharging even outside the prohibited zones.** 
‘These measures still appeared ineffective in controlling oil pollution 
in the oceans and further amendments were proposed. 
1969 Amendments —¥ollowing the Torrey Canyon disaster in March 
1967, which released massive quantities of oil polluting the shores of 
Great Britain and France, the Intergovernmental Maritime Con- 
37 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, adopted May 12, 1954. 
3 U.S.T. 2089, T.I.A.S. No. 4900, 327 U.N.T.S. 3 (1961). 
38 International Convention for the Prevention of the Pollution of the Sea by Oil, adopted April 11, 
1962. 2 U.S.T. 1523, T.I.A.S. No. 6109, 600 U.N.T.S. 332 (1966). 
