180 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



Don't forget, the United States is a great seapower, and every time 

 one of those borders is extended outward as was the attempt in the 

 Tonkin Bay, for instance, this means that the fluidity and the effec- 

 tiveness of the fleet of the United States is thereby diminished. It 

 is very possible that there will be very important stretches of the ocean 

 which if we don't draw some attention to this thing may soon be cut off 

 for the operation of our fleet and the interests of the security of the 

 United States will be drastically and is now being drastically affected. 



In addition to that, I would hate to see us go into oceanography with 

 no more background than what the exploration of the west had, be- 

 cause if you will recall the pattern of the west was as soon as we got out 

 there where the law had not yet arrived, the best of our people were 

 out there trying to make their way against the wilderness, and right 

 behind them came the scavengers ; and, as soon as there was something 

 w^orthwhile stealing, somebody came along with a fast gun and stole 

 it, and I suggest that the law of the sea, in many instances, right out 

 on our Continental Shelf, is in a position now of where the fastest 

 gun in the submarine world may very well be the most important owner 

 in the undersea world. 



And I am very much in favor of your bill, Mr. Chairman, and I 

 think that there should be some really aggressive work done in letting 

 the world know and letting the people of the United States know that 

 we are concerned about the law advancing with the science, so that we 

 know that there is some kind of control and dominion in what we are 

 trying to discover, and I thank this committee very much for the 

 opportunity to be before you on this historic occasion in which the 

 Congress is looking forward, and one of tlie great, I think, situations 

 of the future, and the great explorations that will be launched in our 

 times. 



(The following information was sux>plied for the record :) 



The Library of Congress, 

 LEGiSLAxrv'E Reference Service. 

 Washington, D.G., Jamvary 28. 1965. 



E. Digest of International Treaty on Ownership of Oceanic Resources 

 AND Federal Legislation Pertaining Thereto 



To : Hon. Richard T. Hanna. 



From : Amei-ican Law Division. 



Subject : Information concerning the Continental Shelf. 



We are enclosing a Verifax copy of pertinent provisions of an International 

 Convention on the Continental Shelf which the I'nitetl States approved in 1!)">8; 

 but which did not become effective as an international agreement until .Tune 

 10. 1964. Also enclosed is a Verifax copy of pertinent sections of the statute 

 pertaining to Outer Continental Shelf lands. 



As to whether any Federal agencies, other than the Secretary of the Interior, 

 are vested with any authority to exploit the resources contained in this offshore 

 area, the following may be noted : 



(1) By a law enacted in 1964 (78 Stat. 986; Public Law 88-607). a temi>orary 

 Puhlic Land Review Commission was established with instructions to submit a 

 final report to the President and Congress not later rhan December SI, 1968, 

 concerning the disposition or retention of public lands, included among which 

 are the mineral resources defined "as being under the control of the United 

 States in the Outer Continental Shelf" (43 U.S.C. 1391. 1391. 1400). 



(2) By a proclamation. No. 3339. issued on March 17, 1960 (25 F.R. 2352), 

 President Eisenhower withdrew from disposition as part of the Outer Continen- 

 tal Shelf lands the Key I^rgo Coral Reef Preserve, situated seaward from the 

 coast of Florida, and directed the Sec-retary of the Interior to issue regulations. 



