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our feeble scientific efforts. Members of the House of Representatives and the 
Senate—with vision and dedication—set out to remedy our neglect. 
Good progress was made in fashioning the tools to study the sea—ships and 
laboratories and trained manpower began to match our needs. But the legislators 
who grasped the promise of the sea also saw that the gap in fulfillment had not 
been narrowed. 
In 1966, the Congress passed the Marine Resources and Engineering Develop- 
ment Act, and as Vice President of the United States I was assigned a statutory 
responsibility to preside over a Cabinet-level Council to carry out the mandate 
for more effective utilization of the sea. In advising and assisting President 
Johnson on marine affairs, the Council took note of marine science missions and 
capabilities spread among eleven Federal agencies, and endeavored to focus and 
strengthen their collective efforts. We then took deliberate steps to assess the 
social and economic concerns that beset our people and determine how the 
oceans—through modern science and technology—could contribute more fully 
to our welfare. 
We found many opportunities: 
The potential harvest of marine protein could help meet worldwide malnutri- 
tion, especially the permanent debilitation that is the fate of protein deficient 
children ; 
The need to manage our bays and estuaries so that the increasing solid and 
liquid wastes of a growing population are not unwittingly pushed further down- 
stream, there to pollute the nursery grounds of valuable shellfish, endanger 
human health, and deter water-related recreation sought by an urban-fatigued 
citizenry ; 
The uncharted expanses of seabed oil, gas and minerals that will be required 
to supplement continental sources for an energy and ore hungry world; 
The role of the coastal zone for an essential maritime trade, that in turn needs 
rehabilitation of our ports, harbors and merchant fleet ; 
The function of the sea as the source of rainfall and the generator of weather— 
even to the heartland of the continent—which, with increased knowledge, could 
afford improved storm prediction and, one day, weather modification ; 
The historic role of the seas as a highway for culture as well as commerce, now 
emerging as a potent locale for international cooperation among all nations who 
share in ignorance of the sea today but could share in its benefits tomorrow. 
The Council acted to meet this challenge, and I believe its record speaks for 
itself. It sorted out key goals, and began preparing a blueprint for action that 
involved a partnership among the Federal agencies, but also calling on the inno- 
vation of American industry, the knowledge-generating capacities of the univer- 
sities, the interests of our State governments, and the participation of other 
governments. 
With so great a task, and with so complex and fragmented a base of activities, 
the Johnson-Humphrey administration could do no more than begin. Its legacy 
of focusing new attention on the ocean is now on the agenda of the Nixon-Agnew 
administration. 
President Nixon wrote me just before taking office, stating his interest in 
further advances in marine sciences, and asking my assistance in gaining support 
for this area. Thus your invitation provides an occasion to speak out. 
First, I want to remind our leaders of both parties and our citizens that we 
have not yet fully realized the full importance to mankind of the 71 percent of 
our planet covered by oceans. And our level of efforts for exploration and re- 
source development are still seriously inadequate. 
We cannot delay in extracting protein for starving children. 
We cannot delay in diplomatic initiatives to recall that seabed resources beyond 
national sovereignty are a common heritage of all mankind, and that we must 
head off a squatter’s right approach. 
We cannot delay in committing support to the International Decade of Ocean 
Exploration which the United States proposed 18 months ago. 
We cannot delay in helping less developed nations that front on the sea realize 
fruits of marine development so that benefits will not accrue only to the tech- 
nologically advanced. 
We cannot delay in rational management of the coastal margin so that the 
seashore will serve our children and future generations. 
We cannot delay in maintaining our leadership as a maritime nation by 
strengthening our merchant fleet and fishing industry. 
We cannot delay in developing technologlical capabilities so that the high risks 
of marine engineering can be shared by government and industry. 
