402 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



is needed for present purposes. Since 1945 perhaps as much new knowledge 

 and understanding of the ocean and its resources have been gathered as had been 

 gathered totally up to that time. One simply cannot rationally approach the 

 question of whether it is in the best interest of the United States to attempt to 

 have the living resources over the Continental Shelf appertain to the coastal 

 States until such a study is made. 



i4) What is the Continental Shelf? 



Basic to a determination of what should be the form jurisdiction over the 

 resources of the Continental Shelf or over it, is a definition of the Continental 

 Shelf. The negotiators at Geneva in 1958 found this to be among their most 

 difficult problems. They ended up with the definition : "the seabed and subsoil 

 of the submarine areas adjacent to the coast but oiitside the area of the terri- 

 torial sea, to a depth of 200 meters or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of the 

 superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural resom^ces of the 

 said areas." [Italic supplied.] 



Much is left to be desired about our knowledge of the resources of the seabed 

 and subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to the coast of the United States 

 to a depth of 200 meters. To authorize and direct the basic research such studies 

 require there are several bills presently before both the Senate and House, and 

 it is highly desirable that an appropriate bill of this nature be passed. Tech- 

 nology has been perfected, or is being perfected, with which the necessary 

 explorations and surveys can be made. As noted previously, there is at present 

 sufficient experience to indicate that man properly equipped can work and live 

 at such depths for extended periods of time. One can be permitted the expecta- 

 tion that wtihin 10 years our knowledge of the resources of the Continental 

 Shelf to a depth of 200 meters will be radically different than it now. 



As poor as our knowledge of the Continental Shelf is it is ever so much better 

 than our knowledge of the resources of the continental slope "to where the depth 

 of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural resources 

 of the said areas." 



Commercial fishing techniques perfected in recent years permit an ever deeper 

 penetration of trawl gear along the continental slope. There are several places 

 where trawling to a depth of 600 meters is commercially practiced and it is said 

 that the Russians are now trawling commercially in the Eastern Bering Sea 

 to depths up to 1,000 meters. Also the general statement can be made that the 

 living resources capable of commercial capture along the continental slope are 

 rich, and in some instances possibly richer than on the adjacent Continental 

 Shelf. The oceanographic reasons for this are not clear, but may be associated 

 with internal waves. In fact not too much is known about these matters to 

 very great depth or in very many places. About the only thing that can be said 

 is that our ideas about the productivity of the continental slope in terms of living 

 resources is undergoing change rather rapidly. 



So far as I know our knowledge of the resources of the seabed and subsoil 

 of the continental slope is much more meager than our knowledge of the living 

 resources of the area, which is not very good. We are just coming to the point 

 of developing manned deep sea submergence vehicles that can work conveniently 

 for satisfactory periods of time in adequate depths to explore the continental 

 slope. Instrumentation of all sorts required for exploration at such depths is 

 being perfected steadily and now rather speedily, but it must frankly be stated 

 that our knowledge of the continental slope at present is pretty poor. The 

 exploration of "inner space" is not much less difficult nor will it be much less 

 costly than the exploration of "outer space." Funds have not yet been provided 

 by the Congress for a serious attack on these deeper water problems. Such 

 action by the Congress, however, now appears to be imminent. 



(5) The deep sea lied 



The deep sea bed underlying most of the world ocean (and covering well more 

 than half the earth's surface) lies at depths greater than 2,000 fathoms. We 

 Iiave no information that would lead us to think that there are commercially 

 abundant living resources in such depths. On the other hand there is much 

 information to the effect that there are major, in fact enormous, deposits of 

 valuable minerals on the deep sea bed and that the technology for mining them 

 is on the verge of becoming practicable. This raises all sorts of vexing problems 

 in international law and public policy. 



Does the clause "to where a depth of the superjacent waters admits of the 

 ■exploitation of the natural resources of the said areas" apply to the deep seabed if 

 that is being mined commercially? 



