NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 121 



Sea water is also a rich source of minerals. The United States has a lead 

 in this field because of the pioneering work that has been accomplished by Dow 

 Chemical Co., in extracting valuable minerals, particularly bromine and mag- 

 nesium, from sea water. But the U.S. Government has no program to evaluate 

 the mineral extrac'tion potential of the oceans. 



In its natural state, acre per acre, the sea is producing about as much as the 

 land, yet man is only taking about 1 percent of his present food requirements 

 from the salt-water environment. When we begin to farm the oceans we can 

 expect them to produce much greater quantities of desirable food substances — 

 just as farming on land has greatly increased in productivity. However, at 

 the present, the United States does not have a program dedicated to the farming 

 of the sea. 



With regard to eflacient hunting and capturing of the living resources of the 

 sea, new types of vessels and gear are being developed far more rapidly than 

 they are being used. World fishery production is doubling every 12 years, but 

 world production could be further increased if intelligent management of these 

 resources were practiced. But this committee knows well that the United States 

 is not engaged in this exciting development. U.S. production in 1964 was ap- 

 proximately the same as 30 years ago. The Fishing Vessel Improvement Act, 

 passed by Congress last year, was far too modest. The fact is that the United 

 States would have to build fishing vessels to the maximum extent allowed under 

 the Fishing Vessel Improvement Act through the close of this century before 

 we would be able to place in our own coastal waters a fleet of U.S. fishing vessels 

 comparable in tonnage to the foreign-flag fishing vessels operating in our coastal 

 waters at the present time. 



Looking beyond the resources to be found in the sea water itself, we find in 

 the Continental Shelf and ocean floor the ultimate repository of minerals eroded 

 from the continent. The ocean does a remarkable job of segregating and con- 

 centrating many of the minerals which are of substantial commercial value, 

 including phosphorus, manganese, nickel, iron, copper, and cobalt. In recent 

 years vast discoveries of these minerals have been made on the Continental 

 Shelf and ocean floor. Although several American industries have expressed 

 interest in the development of these resources, the United States today has 

 no program to assist in this effort. 



One of the earliest and today certainly the most significant industry operating 

 on the Continental Shelf is the petroleum industry. This industry, with limited 

 encouragement from our Government, has made vast expenditures of money 

 for the exploitation of oil and gas reserves on the Continental Shelf. Approxi- 

 mately 5,000 wells have been drilled on the Outer Continental Shelf, primarily 

 in the Gulf of Mexico. Some wells have been drilled at a depth of almost 600 

 feet, and are located over 75 miles offshore. This development has been par- 

 ticularly significant because the Federal Government has directly benefited sub- 

 stantially from oil leases, bonuses, and royalties. During the past 10 years the 

 United States has received over $1.2 billion from Outer Continental Shelf 

 mineral bonuses, $14 million in rentals, and royalties estimated at $16 million 

 a year. These figures do not include the receipts by State governments for oil 

 leases, bonuses, and royalties on that portion of the Continental Shelf within 

 their jurisdiction. However, strong evidence suggests that substantial returns 

 have also been received by States from this source. 



There appears to be complete agreement that further development of the 

 petroleum resources of the Continental Shelf could be substantially expedited 

 if the U.S. Government would undertake an accelerated program to study the 

 Continental Shelf and ocean enviornment. The U.S. Government makes avail- 

 able to all industries information about the land environment to encourage 

 economic development. It is high time that we do the same regarding the 

 Continental Shelf environment. 



One of the most encouraging recent actions by the Government was President 

 Johnson's decision to construct an atomic-powered vehicle for commercial ocean 

 resource work. This will for the first time give us the power needed to work on 

 the ocean floor without the usual restrictions of time. The significance of this 

 is not to be minimized. 



I would like again to stress that these recent technological developments en- 

 couraging the economic use of ocean resources represent a shift in our interests 

 from the collecting of scientific information to the solving of problems relating to 

 the harvesting and utilization of ocean resources. There are obvious and ex- 

 tensive economic benefits to be gained by a U.S. program of resource development 



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