387 



have a formal coordinating agreement regarding each agency's re- 

 sponsibilities in sanitary shellfish control. The Department of Natural 

 resources cooperates with the Department of Air and Water Pollution 

 Control on pollution control programs. The Department of Natural 

 Kesources' Marine Resources Division reports its findings on the results 

 of ecological and environmental studies of proposed projects pertain- 

 ing to the sale, modification, and development of submerged lands to 

 the Internal Improvement Fund. Then, in the 1969 session, the State 

 legislature passed a bill whereby the Department of Natural Resources 

 and the Department of Air and Water Pollution Control are to be rep- 

 resented on the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' 

 pesticide technical advisory committee. 



In brief, Florida being a relatively highly urban, low rural, highly 

 developed State seems to have the organizational and legislative basis 

 for the relatively effective management of its estuaries. The current 

 problems in estuarine resource utilization in the State seem not to lie 

 in the area of adequate coordination but in the area of lack of funds 

 and trained field and laboratory personnel to carry out effective pollu- 

 tion surveillance programs and to conduct necessary studies to deter- 

 mine effects of various water uses and assess damages when necessary. 

 A potentially serious problem in estuarine management lies in the 

 private ownership of thousands of acres of submerged land including 

 most of the intertidal marshland in the less urbanized areas of northern 

 Florida. 



ALASKA 



The previously described case studies — Massachusetts, Florida, 

 etc. — represent estuarine-management organizational frameworks of 

 relatively well-established States. The following case study of Alaska 

 represents a rural and generally light industrial (low development 

 area) State that is relatively new. Alaska has a longer coastline than 

 any other State — 33,000 linear miles — a small population, and it is one 

 of three or four political entities in the world that is bounded by two 

 oceans, four seas, and two foreign nations. There is phenomenal public 

 awareness and concern about the State's estuarine areas because more 

 than 90 percent of the population depends on these areas for their 

 livelihood and/or well-being. 



In Alaska, because of the vast coastline, the short production or 

 w^orking season and small staff capabilities, the management frame- 

 work is extremely flexible to allow activities in estuarine areas to be 

 handled on a need basis, rather than based on a preplanned program. 

 Since statehood, Alaska owns its tidal and submerged lands, with few 

 exceptions. The State cannot sell its tidal or submerged lands but only 

 leases them, maintaining State ownership and control. A large ma- 

 jority of the State's adjacent uplands are under Federal control (parks, 

 preserves, refuges) with cooperative Federal- State management. Be- 



