nomena. Baseline data are needed and design, construction, and operation 

 capabilities are required if we are to manage the coastal zone well. The 

 price of inadequate information and lack of design and engineering data, 

 skills and equipment will be faulty design or overdesign. Each of these 

 shortcomings reduces the ability to manage effectively and frequently 

 results in economically significant overexpenditures, even losses. Improve- 

 ment and even expansion of the eflFort in this area is clearly justified on 

 grounds of its relevance and importance to solution of the major problems 

 of the time and of the future. 



Summary 



The passage of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 was a mile- 

 stone of national importance. It was, however, followed directly by an 

 Administration decision not to fund the program for fiscal years '73 and '74. 

 While the Federal Government is marking time, many of the states are 

 moving ahead in the best way they can, and some confusion has begun 

 to appear due to lack of a properly funded Federal program. 



Basic scientific knowledge and technology relative to coastal environ- 

 ments and resources are inadequate to the tasks ahead. Decisions are going 

 to be made based upon the knowledge available. In many cases the price 

 of this dearth of information and technological inadequacy will be gross 

 overdesign and the resultant economic penalties. Coastal fisheries and bio- 

 logical research, particularly the biological infomiation needed to make 

 rational decisions on resource development and utilization, appear grossly 

 underfunded. 



NACOA strongly recommends and urges that the National Coastal 

 Zone Management Act of 1972 (P.L. 92-583) be funded to the full amount 

 authorized by law and that its implementation in all aspects be vigorously 

 pursued. NACOA also recommends that the budgetary priority be in- 

 creased for R&D programs bearing directly on the coastal zone manage- 

 ment planning and regulation decisions. 



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