SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



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sources include the living organisms, which support the fisheries, petroleum, 

 minerals, and water. Important nonextractive uses include transportation, recre- 

 ation, waste disposal, and power. Direct extraction of power from the sea, such 

 as by tidal power or by generation of electricity from thermal differences, is of 

 importance in only a few localities, and is not likely to provide any large share 

 of the total power requirement of the human population, but the use of the sea 

 for cooling water for nuclear power reactors is of rather considerable impor- 

 tance. 



It has been pointed out many times that the atmosphere and the upper ocean 

 form a single physical system the operation of which determines the weather and 

 climate. The key to extended weather forecasting lies in the understanding of 

 the actions and interactions of this system. Similarly, through understanding of 

 the system there may be a future possibility for the modification of weather and 

 climate. We may hope to learn how to control hurricanes, or prevent their gen- 

 eration, and to modify the natural distribution of rainfall, for example. Both of 

 these are presently well beyond our capabilities, but their importance to human 

 affairs is so large that we cannot ignore them. 



I shall not attempt here to review in detail the extent of the present uses 

 and future potential of all of these various resources of the sea. They have all 

 been examined in some detail by the National Academy of Sciences' Committee 

 on Oceanography in a recent publication on "Economic Benefits from Oeano- 

 graphic Research." That report considered primarily the direct economic 

 benefits to the United States from the utilization of the resources of the sea. It 

 touched only lightly, however, on the uses of the sea for satisfying the needs of 

 the rest of the world, simply pointing out the ways in which the pursuit of studies 

 of the ocean and its contents could be accelerated to the mutual benefit of the 

 United States and other nations through international cooperation, and the value 

 of international cooperation to the long-term objectives of our nation. It must be 

 noted that some, at least, of the resources of the sea which provide important 

 opportunities to the United Stwtes are vital necessities to some other nations. 

 For example, animal protein from the ocean is of importance to the nutrition of 

 people in the United States, but it is a vital necessity to such countries as Nor- 

 way, Japan, India, or the Philippines, which cannot possibly produce on their 

 land the quantity of animal protein required for the adequate nutrition of their 

 people. We may also note that transportation of heavy and bulky cargoes by 

 sea is indispensable to the industrial development of most nations, 



STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE 



The more extensive and intensive use of the resources of the world ocean 

 by more and more people presents great new opportunities to the United States, 

 and also must inevitably bring new conflicts, and new dimensions to old con- 

 flicts, among the nations. The strategic position of the United States can be pro- 

 foundly affected by the comingintensivedevelopment of this new frontier. 



One obvious element of United States strategy is to secure for its people a 

 legitimate share of the resources of the high seas and of the underlying sea bed. 

 I have already noted that the international law is proceeding toward the estab- 

 lishment of property rights of one sort or another in these resources. It may be 

 that it would be of the greatest advantage to the United States and to other na- 

 tions to vest the ownership of these resources in the United Nations or some 

 other international agency, as has been suggested. It also may be that this 

 solution would be most unwise, and that other arrangements among nations for 

 the allocation of the uses of the resources would be superior. We may, in any 

 case, be sure that the nation which has the most knowledge of the ocean and its 

 resources, and is in the forefront of the actual use thereof, will be in the best 

 position to control its own destiny. 



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