551 
In making these recommendations and in urging that the United 
States take the lead in trying to resolve these very intricate and com- 
plex issues, the Marine Commission issued a warning to the effect 
that: 
Unless a new international framework is devised which removes the legal 
uncertainty from mineral resource exploration and exploitation in every area of 
the seabed and subsoil, some venturesome governments and private entrepreneurs 
will act to create fait accomplis that will be difficult to undo, even though they 
adversely affect the interests of the United States and the international com- 
munity. 
Mr. Chairman, having devoted a good deal of my own time and 
effort over the last several years to attempting to grapple with the 
Outer Continental Shelf boundary issue and the question of an inter- 
national legal and political framework for the exploitation of deep- 
sea mineral resources, I firmly believe that the recommendations of 
the Marine Commission strike the proper sense of urgency with re- 
gard to U.S. policy requirements, and in our national interest. 
As this committee knows, and in fact I took the liberty of sending 
each member a copy, I have reintroduced in the Senate legislation, 
Senate Resolution 33, calling upon the President to have tabled before 
the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of the Seabed, 
which begins its next meeting August 11, a specific set of legal princi- 
ples for governing the use of ocean space, and I am pleased to note 
that a companion resolution has been introduced in the House by 
Congressman Gallagher, chairman of the Subcommittee- on Inter- 
national Organizations and Movements of the Foreign Affairs Com- 
mittee. I would hope that the members of this subcommittee, being 
familiar with this subject, would look with a favorable eye upon this 
legislation. 
While this proposed legislation differs in some detail with the sug- 
gestions made by the Marine Commission, its general thrust and 
orientation are precisely in accord with the Commission’s observa- 
tions and recommendations: The United States can no longer delay 
in facing up to the tough political decisions involved in the ocean 
space question. The most urgent of these decisions relates to the Outer 
Continental Shelf boundary, or the extent of coastal State jurisdic- 
tion over offshore mineral resources. 
In discussing the boundary issue, Mr. Chairman, I hope this com- 
mittee will keep in mind two very important considerations: (1) the 
United States has but 10 percent of the world’s Continental Shelf 
area; 90 percent of it is outside the shores adjoining or adjacent to the 
United States; and (2) our country is the recognized leader in the 
field of applied marine technology. 
To me both of these factors mean that it is very much to our own 
national interest to limit coastal authority, in order to take advantage 
of our technological superiority and to be able to apply it to the largest 
international zone possible. I am convinced that such an arrangement 
would be acceptable to the international community, so long as the 
United States and the other developed countries agreed to the kind of 
international fund recommended along the lines of the Marine 
Commission. 
For the benefit of this committee, I think it should be noted that the 
Senate Subcommittee on Ocean Space, of which I am chairman, has 
