601 
The reasons for retaining in the United States jurisdiction over the 
widest band of adjacent seabed resources consistent with our international com- 
mitments were summarized as follows in the 1968 Report of the Sections to the 
House of Delegates: 
(Footnote continued from previous page.) 
vention extends sovereign rights over the seabed beyond the 200-meter 
line only as technological progress makes exploitation in that area pos- 
sible in fact. Since exploitation techniques still cannot reach the foot 
of the continental margin, these members believe it erroneous to say 
that sovereign rights now embrace that area. To this extent they are 
unwilling to perpetuate what they regard as a misunderstanding of 
their position in the 1968 Joint Report. 
"Those who take the view that sovereign rights now embrace 
that area answer that under the existing Convention on the Continental 
Shelf {1) the coastal State's exclusive sovereign rights encompass any 
exploitation on the adjoining continental margin, whether that exploita- 
tion is effected by its national or by a foreigner; /Article 2 provides 
that "if the coastal State does not explore the continental shelf or ex- 
ploit its natural resources, no one may undertake these activities, or 
make a claim to the continental shelf, without the express consent of 
the coastal State, ' and these rights ''do not depend on occupation, ef- 
fective or notional.'"'/ (2) a change in the Convention which would re- 
tract this boundary of the area of the coastal State's exclusive interest 
to a line which is landward of the submerged edge of the continent would 
deprive the coastal nation of rights now recognized in that State by the 
existing Convention. This being so, they say that it does not matter 
greatly (with respect to exploration and exploitation of seabed resources) 
whether the outer limit of exclusive sovereign rights of the coastal 
State is characterized as the boundary of rights heretofore vested in 
the coastal nation, or the limit on jurisdiction to be acquired in 
futuro by exploitation of successively deeper areas, since, in either 
event, occupation and exploitation by any other State of the area 
within this limit is prohibited." 
