607. 
agency, such as the World Bank, separate from the registration agency, * and 
would be available for pemigtanee to the less davelened countries. 
The Commission report also recommendsthe creation of an "inter- 
mediate zone'' of seabed, seaward of the treaty shelf as defined by the Com- 
mission (the 200-meter isobath or the 50-mile line), to the 2, 500-meter jeobath 
or 100 nautical miles from the baseline of the territorial sea, whichever gives 
the greater area. The boundary would be permanently fixed as in the case of 
the shelf. The Commission assumes that the 2, 500-meter isobath is the 
average depth at the foot of the peplogicel continental beteace or slope and 
100 miles is the average width of the shelf and slope or terrace. (Geologists 
do not all agree that these assumptions are true or relevant. ) 
Only the coastal state or its licensees would be authorized to explore 
and exploit resources therein. It need not do so, but, if it does, its claims 
must be registered with the Authority and would come under the other terms 
and conditions of the international regime. 
Comments on the Commission's recommendations 
for an intermediate zone 
Our 1969 Draft Report comments on the intermediate zone scheme 
as follows: 
"Many of the arguments summarized earlier with regard 
to the proper limit of the shelf are also applicable, pro and con, 
to this intermediate zone concept. If the Commission's 'inter- 
mediate zone' proposal were adopted, in conjunction with a 'nar- 
row' shelf, foreign coastal nations would have exactly the same 
power to exclude American companies, or to demand burdensome 
*Our 1969 Draft Report says: ''We endorse the principle here recog- 
nized, that the agency concerned with production should be separated from 
the agency distributing the proceeds," 
