414 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



There is no natural reason why the United States cannot only produce all of 

 the fish it eats, but be a major net exporter of fish and fish products. If a small 

 part, in terms of value, of the services that the U.S. Government provides for its 

 farmers vpere provided for its fishermen there would not appear to be any reason 

 why this could not be done economically also. 



Thus the merchant marine and the sea fisheries, quite aside from strategic 

 considerations, are of considerable importance to the total economy and both 

 are capable of becoming much more important in it. In terms of tonnage the 

 U.S. merchant marine's share of the U.S. foreign trade has fallen from .50 percent 

 to 9 percent since 194.5. In terms of round weight the U.S. fisherman's share of 

 the U.S. market for fishery products has fallen from 80 percent to 38 percent 

 since 1948. Both of these trends are perfectly capable of reversal, and it would 

 not take much of a reversal in them to materially affect the trend in the balance- 

 of -payment problem. 



THE CONTINENTAL SHELF 



The Convention on the Continental Shelf, resulting from the 1958 conference 

 on the law of the sea, came into effect in 1964 upon the ratification of it by the 

 22d country. Under it the resources of the Continental Shelf adjacent to its 

 coast became the exclusive property of the coastal nation. Under the convention 

 of the United States gained title to a very large extension in its sovereign terri- 

 tory. The exact size of the new territory is not finite because it is capable of 

 expansion. The definition of the "Continental Shelf" in the convention reads 

 "the seabed and submarine areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of 

 the territorial sea, to a depth of 200 meters or, beyond that limit, to xvliere the 

 depth of the superjacent ivaters admits of the exploitation of the natural re- 

 sources of the said areas." [Italic supplied.] 



The known resources of this new territory are enormously valuable. Under the 

 Tidelands Act of 1953 and the Outer Continental Shelf Act of 1954 right to lease 

 these lands for harvesting was divided between the Federal Government and 

 the governments of the several States. Petroleiun, gas. and sulfur are the 

 principal resources for which these lands are now being leased for harvesting. 

 Already the Federal Goveimment and the State government together are getting 

 a greater annual dollar income from the leases of these submerged lands than 

 the total amounts of money being spent by the Federal Government and the State 

 goveimments on oceanic research and development. The Federal income from 

 this source alone yields upward of $300 million per year aginst a cost this year of 

 about .$140 million for the national oceanographic program. While I have no 

 figures, it is certain that less than 1 percent of the total Continental Shelf is 

 presently under lease for these purposes. 



Technologies are now available, or within close reach which would make it 

 possible for men to live and work for extended periods of time (weeks) at depths 

 up to 200 meters, the normal depth of the outer edge of the Continental Shelf. 

 Thus it is now on the verge of being possible for a "prospector" with a pick to 

 work over the mineral resources of the Continental Shelf with as great care as 

 •can be done on land and with less danger than many prospectors have worked 

 under in the desert regions of the West. Deep-sea submersibles are in the design 

 or construction stage which would give this underwater prospector a dependable 

 "burro" for his use. 



There is every reason to expect from existing knowledge that the mineral carry- 

 ing charactertistics of the Continental Shelf are quite similar to that of the 

 adjacent continent except that added to this are deposits of .strictly oceanic 

 origin, such as phosphate deposits. 



Thus there is major incentive to exploration and development of the resources 

 of the Continental Shelf from the standpoint of net dollar income to the Govern- 

 ment that would result from increased leases, and from added benefits that 

 would fiow to the gross national product from creating the new extraction 

 industries. 



Additionally, there is the "kicker" provided by the definition of the Continental 

 Shelf in the convention. As techniques are developed enabling the exploitation 

 of natural resources in deeper and deeper water, more and more new territory 

 will come within the sovereign tv of thf^ nation capable of doing this. 



Lastly, there is the precept that the U.S. Guvernment has followed consistently 

 with each new territorial acquisition since President Jefferson sent Lems and 

 Clark out to explore the Louisiana Purchase 160 years ago. The first thing to 

 do when we get a new piece of territory is to explore it to see what we have gained 

 that may be put to use. Having done this the hisoric precedent is then for the 



