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seminated. The national program for estaiarine study should be devel- 

 oped with strong regional emphasis based on ecology, geography, 

 and a commonality of problems and objectives. Planning for estuarine 

 use and development must be based on broad public benefits rather 

 than narrow private interests. A system of criteria by which to gauge 

 estuarine quality is necessary. Key management roles require ade- 

 quately trained people in ecology, engineering, economics, planning, 

 and law. Finally, the public must be informed of its stake in the 

 estuary. 



The Federal and State roles in estuarine monitoring, research, and 

 study should be a joint one with their respective actions complemen- 

 tary. The State role is basically to manage its estuarine and coastal 

 zone resources, coordinate the research activities of its appropriate 

 agencies and institutions, and to augment and encourage the develop- 

 ment of new knowledge applicable to its estuaries and coastal area. 

 The Federal role, a residual one, is primarily to assist the States 

 through such means as : grants to States and to academic institutions, 

 organizations, and individuals to support needed investigations ; per- 

 form broad studies not of a local nature ; participate in State and local 

 studies; coordinate Federal estaurine and coastal zone research and 

 study activities ; and organize and coordinate its laboratory resources 

 so as to cooperate with and assist States, localities, and academic insti- 

 tutions supporting and using research in the estuarine and coastal 

 zones. 



CoNCLTJSioisrs 



The ever-increasing and often conflicting social and economic 

 demands of modern human civilization are placing significant pres- 

 sures on the limited estuarine resources of the United States. The 

 delicately balanced natural ecology of the estuarine zone has been sub- 

 jected to over 300 years of exploitation and alteration; objective 

 analysis of the results of this use and misuse shows that positive action 

 is needed now to preserve, conserve, and enhance the finite resources of 

 the coastal zone. 



Natural estuarine ecosystems are communities of living organisms 

 existing in reasonably delicate balances determined by definable but 

 poorly understood external environmental conditions. These systems 

 exist only in the geographically and physically limited narrow inter- 

 face where the land meets the sea ; where over one-third of this Nation's 

 present population and industry is concentrated into 15 percent of the 

 land area. 



This society uses the resources of the estuarine zone and coastal zone 

 to serve not only those social and economic purposes for which the 

 zone is uniquely valuable, such as recreation, fishing, and navigation, 

 but also to satisfy other requirements of civilization wherever 

 organized human society exists. These uses include industrial, residen- 

 tial, and commercial land development, exploitation of mineral re- 

 sources and fossil fuels, water supply, and a place to dispose of the 

 wastes from all of these activities. The economic pressures of these 

 diverse and often conflicting uses have often resulted in a preemption 

 of the estuarine resources for individually profitable uses to the limita- 

 tion or exclusion of other valuable, but much less quantifiable, uses. 



The natural aesthetic and habitat qualities of the estuarine and 



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