823 
EXPANDED INTERNATIONAL INTEREST 
The fourth major development mentioned earlier is a sharply in- 
tensified global interest, and the Council machinery has endeavored 
to be responsive to this challenge. Approximately 100 nations front 
the sea. With new technology for exploration and exploitation, these 
nations are projecting their national interests seaward, conducting 
activities farther from their coasts. 
As marine interests intensify and converge, the competition for 
resources, conflicts and debilitating rivalries potentially mcrease. 
International cooperation thus becomes essential. 
In 1966, with explicit encouragement by the United States, the 
United Nations began to study questions of cooperation in research 
and exploration, of reserving the seabeds for peaceful purposes, and 
establishing guidelines for nations in the exploitation of seabed 
resources. 
In 1968, the General Assembly created a 42-nation standing com- 
mittee to discuss meaningful and workable principles to guide the 
international community in the marie environment. 
In Geneva, the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee has re- 
cently been considering possibilities for seabed arms control. In that 
form, the United States proposed a treaty seeking to prohibit em- 
placement of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction 
on the ocean floor. 
To foster research and exploration, the U.N. General Assembly 
moved in 1968 to strengthen the role of UNESCO’s Intergovernmen- 
tal Oceanographic Commission in coordinating research. It welcomed 
the U.S. proposal for an International Decade of Ocean Exploration 
as part of an expanded U.N. program of scientific exploration of the 
oceans and their resources. 
At its fifth biennial session just last week, the IOC moved to out- 
line the scope of such a program, to recommend the steps necessary to 
implement it, and especially to prepare the planning methodology and 
machinery to deal with such a program. 
During this Decade of Preparation, this is the manner by which 
U.S. leadership sought to turn the growing international interest to 
constructive activity. 
THE COMMISSIONERS AND THEIR REPORT 
The next decade—a Decade of Realization—must take into account 
the problems of today, but it must plan for the benefits of tomorrow. 
The Commission on Marine Science, Engineering, and Resources has 
rendered to the President and the Congress a report replete with 
recommendations. 
First, as to the Commission itself—their report is the product of 
perceptive endeavors of knowledgeable, distinguished citizens, aided 
by a capable staff. They represent not only expertise in marine science, 
per se, but others widely respected in education, business, law, eco- 
nomics, and government at National and State levels. 
The Commission also had the benefit of advice from four Members 
of Congress, including the distinguished chairman of this subeommit- 
