514 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



who meet with the ministerial level representatives of other nations 

 relative to U.S. interests in international marine affairs. Other 

 nations, very logically, believe that our Government does not care 

 enough abou,t these matters to give them high official attention, and 

 justly so. 



Second, much of our international commitment is concerned with 

 underdeveloped countries and dietary lack of protein in 60 percent of 

 the world's population. We ship our surplus grain to nations but do 

 little to attack the basic problem of protein inadequacy. We know 

 that sustained fisheries resources exceed the world's protein require- 

 ments — and further, that great unused resources are available just off 

 the shores of many an underdeveloped country. The undeveloped 

 nations need to be taught how to utilize the unused resources. 



Other countries, particularly Eussia, capitalize on this knowledge 

 by building up the fisheries capacities of underdeveloped nations and 

 by direct landings of fisheries products by their home fleets. In this 

 way the Russian fisheries and merchant marine make a profi,t of their 

 activities, and at the same time use their vessels as an adjunct of their 

 defense posture throughout the world in recognition of the strategic 

 importance of the world ocean areas — 70 percent of the earth's surface. 



Our sick fisheries industry and declining merchant marine do not 

 compete — nor do they add the important strategic element of U.S. 

 occupation throughout the world ocean area. 



Third, we are constantly reminded that our continental reserves of 

 strategic fossil fuels and minerals are dwindling — that indeed we are 

 living today on the savings required for future generations. Were we 

 to mine more from the sea and the Continental Shelf we would be, in 

 effect, living on our income rather than exclusively on our savings. 

 For every river, every stream, every rain brings dissolved minerals and 

 chemicals from the land to the sea — enriching and replenishing the 

 sea. 



By this I do not suggest any abandonment of our interior resources 

 or that we need depend upon the minerals, oil, and gas resources of 

 the sea today and/or even tomorrow. I do maintain, however, that we 

 must accelerate our effort, now, to explore, to chart and locate, and to 

 use the resources of the marine environment. If we do not, others will 

 and we will suffer for our negligence. Through use and industrial 

 incentive our teclinology will rapidly improve. 



Fourth, recent studies have brought to light some serious problems 

 in the aging and deterioration of the Great Lakes, estuarian, and 

 harbor areas. The speed of the aging process in such bodies of water 

 is normally measured in millenia. We now have reason to believe that 

 large quantities of nutrients entering our Great Lakes and coastal bays 

 in waste discharges are speeding up this process significantly. Also, 

 we find that even with the overnight elimination of pollutants from 

 these waters — if such were possible — the reversal of the aging process, 

 or even its slowing down, appears to be next to impossible under the 

 limitations of present knowledge. 



To those from our Nation's heartland, I need not overemphasize the 

 economic impact of water level drops or vegetative concentrations in 

 the Great Lakes. We need to learn more about the currents, tempera- 



