555 
Senator Petu. Two comments on that. First as to my own support, 
as I said, I would not want to pin myself down to specifics. It is a 
general support of the concept of a single agency. I have not yet made 
up my own mind, for instance, on whether the Coast Guard should be 
included in NOAA. I think it probably belongs in the new agency, but 
my support for a new agency is general, and I am sure that as you 
move ahead in your hearings you will be refining the bill and adding 
amendments to it and improving it as you go. 
I personally am strongly in support of the general approach that 
you have. Now, will my colleagues in the Senate be interested ? 
The tragedy, I think, in this whole area is that nobody is really in- 
terested in the problem except the concerned people and those of us 
who have made a special study of it. I can remember 2 years ago hav- 
ing a hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee and trying to get 
people to come up and testify on the question of an international 
regime. I do not mean to get off the subject, but it is of interest. We 
couldn’t get industry to take a position. We couldn’t get the Govern- 
ment to take a position. 
You go around the world and talk to people and find that the interest 
in this area is not as great as it should be. I think that the proposals 
you have been making, your legislation suggestions, make so much 
sense that once we focus on them I don’t see how we could help but 
move ahead. 
I can’t make a prediction now because I think very few people have 
thought about it. 
Mr. Mosuer. I certainly agree with you that we who are interested 
in the oceans need a much larger and stronger constituency. I am in- 
clined to think it is stronger than most people think. After all, I repre- 
sent an inland congressional district, although it fronts on Lake Erie, 
and I consider that a coastal zone to some extent. But it is Midwest, and 
yet I am surprised at how popular this whole matter is, this whole 
interest in the oceans is great, even there. It has a lot of romance to it, 
and I think, as you suggest, when you talk about the pyramids and the 
plow, there is a readiness to believe out there in the Midwest that in the 
seas there is a potential return in terms of earthly uses and the strug- 
gles that man is going through to make a greater future, there is a 
much greater and more immediate return in the oceans than there is in 
space. 
Sabir is a lot of enthusiasm growing, and I think there is a con- 
stituency growing for the oceans. 
Senator Pexu. I pray that you are correct. I think many people feel 
exactly the way you do but, from the viewpoint of the media, I noticed 
that in the 4 days of hearings we conducted and it may have been a 
reflection on my own position in the community, we didn’t get one 
mention in the national press, the New York Times, AP, UPI. I think 
you are doing better over here in getting it press attention, but so far 
the press does not find this a very sexy or exciting subject. 
I would hope they change because when they change, I think that 
my colleagues will themselves become more seized with the issue. _ 
Mr. Mosuer. I have been a smalltown newspaperman all my life 
and I don’t think my profession necessarily always knows what the 
public is interested in. 
With that comment, I will return the floor. 
26-563 O—70—pt. 24 
