508 



Mr. Popper. First let me say that the statement of December 7 was 

 not personally given by Ambassador Goldberg but by a member of his 

 delegation. 



Mr. Lennon. He was the head of the delegation ? 



Mr. Popper. Yes. The statement you paraphrased refers to the part 

 of Ambassador Goldberg's statement of November 8 in which he said 

 that the U.S. delegation proposed that the General Assembly take 

 action at this session of the Assembly to establish a Committee on the 

 Oceans. The thought was to have a permanent committee. The one 

 finally appointed has a mandate of only 1 year. Then it makes a report 

 and leaves it to the General Assembly to decide at that time whether it 

 wishes to proceed to something more permanent, 



Mr. Lennon. I think most of us in Congress are concerned with re- 

 spect to the authority, if any, or the jurisdiction, if any, which we 

 have as to certain depths on the west coast or the east coast. I am re- 

 minded that there is a reef or bank, called the Cortez Bank, 100 miles 

 off the State of California where there is a depth of 15 feet and a pri- 

 vate company wanted to build an island and the Department of the 

 Interior said "No," that this country did not have jurisdiction. Do you 

 gentlemen know about that ? 



Mr. Futterman. I believe I know the case to which you are refer- 

 ring. I think in that case some private individuals were interested in 

 jDutting some fill on the reef and establishing an island. I do not be- 

 lieve they applied to the Department of the Interior or any other 

 Government agency to do that. That was the cause of the controversy. 

 I believe there was talk about possible litigation by the U.S. Govern- 

 ment if they proceeded. 



Mr. Lennon. If the Government can exercise no jurisdiction to the 

 extent of 100 miles off the shores of California how can the Federal 

 Government say "No" to any individual if they want to invest in a 

 man-made island? 



Mr. Ftjtterman. The basis on which the Federal Government would 

 do that would be on the ground that this was covered by the Outer 

 Continental Shelf Lands Act. All these cases have been considered on 

 their own merits and on a case-by-case basis. The Interior Department 

 has indeed leased parcels of land that at least in part lay deeper than 

 200 meters. However, there is no broad general rule that can be 

 extrapolated from these cases. 



Mr. Lennon. I am reminded that somewhere south of Newfoundland 

 there is an island owned by France or Canada. 



Mr. FuTTERMAN. Miquelon Island? 



Mr. Lennon. Yes. 



Mr. FuTTERMAX. France. 



Mr. Lennon. They recently leased quite a substantial area of ocean 

 floor for exploitation in that area, have they not, involving both 

 Canada and France. 



Mr. FuTTERMAN. I am not familiar with this. 



Mr. Lennon. The news media carried the story just this week about 

 that. The question that arose was what was the authority to do that 

 and how far does France have authority to lease for exploitation? I 

 understand this is relatively shallow water and the depth does not enter 

 into it. However, I thought the distance did enter into it. 



