coastal environment enhance its value for many economic uses and also 

 make it a recreational resource of great commercial, as well as social 

 value. It is the value of the estuarine zone as a fish and wildlife habitat, 

 a recreational resource, and an aesthetic attraction that make the 

 estuarine zone a unique feature of the human environment, yet it is 

 these very values that have been generally ignored in satisfying the 

 immediate social and economic needs of civilization. The overall value 

 of the estuarine zone for commerce, navigation, and transportation 

 has been detailed in this report to the extent that definitive economic 

 data are available. The values of the estuarine zone as a fish and wild- 

 life habitat, as a recreational facility, and as an aesthetic experience are 

 probably greater than they are for commercial exploitation but, un- 

 fortunately, we have not yet developed the ability to adequately express 

 these social and humanistic values in quantitative terms. 



The pressures of population growth and economic development 

 associated with increasing urbanization and industrialization in the 

 estuarine zone have permitted and, indeed, encouraged dredging and 

 filling operations, resulting in the destruction of many valuable areas 

 of estuarine marsh and wetlands. The complete and irreversible loss 

 of this habitat eradicates not only the resident and transient wildfowl 

 dependent upon it, but also the life support system of the bulk of the 

 Nation's sport and commercial fish. True, we cannot now establish a 

 direct quantifiable relationship describing the acreages of wetland, 

 marsh, or estuary necessary to support our coastal fisheries, but we do 

 know that this relationship does exist and that the necessary habitat 

 must be protected. Activities generated by these same social and eco- 

 nomic pressures have degraded estuarine waters, severely damaging 

 not only the estuarine ecosystem, but also the other essential human 

 uses of the estuarine resource. 



The value of the estuarine resources to the Nation lies more in the 

 multiple purposes it can serve than in the economic worth of a single 

 use, and it is this overriding national value which has been minimized 

 or ignored. Population and economic development pressures are in- 

 creasing more rapidly now than they have in the past, and continuation 

 of present attitudes and approaches toward use of the estuarine and 

 coastal zone can bring only an increasing rate of damage to its ecology 

 and to the resources it supplies. 



Properly supported and managed research and studies to increase 

 present knowledge and information can contribute greatly to effective 

 technical management of the estuaries and coastal areas. 



Over and above this, though, must be added a stronger and better 

 institutional environment to provide the umbrella for the integrated 

 and comprehensive planning needed to convert the processes of loss 

 and damage to actions leading to enhanced and broadened values. The 

 program for accomplishing this is presented in Part III. 



