Introduction 



A similarity which runs through most of the issues in NACOA's First 

 Annual Report is the underlying need for specific international under- 

 standings as a requisite for solution. This requirement stems less from the 

 international nature of the oceans and the atmosphere than it does from 

 the need for wise management of what have lately become recognized as 

 limited resources. 



Effective resource management requires agreement among the parties 

 whose interests are involved; interdependence amongst nations therefore 

 clearly complicates matters. While coincidence between national and in- 

 ternational interests plainly exists, it has nevertheless grown more difficult 

 in recent years to keep questions of international politics from taking over 

 where technological interchange would better serve all concerned. The 

 hope is that where there is growing international awareness of a common 

 problem, there can be found the mechanisms for providing the techno- 

 logical inputs for working things out. 



Common interest issues are prominent in three of the four sections of 

 this Report. In "Some International Issues Related to Law of the Sea" 

 they are central. Here NACOA reviews the developing controversies over 

 freedom of passage, freedom for research, and the jurisdiction of fisheries, 

 and proposes means for fostering their resolution while protecting U.S. 

 interests. In a second section, NACOA notes the growing international 

 awareness that fish can be harvested to extinction if not biologically 

 managed and suggests how this awareness provides the opportunity to 

 work at rehabilitating the U.S. fisheries. 



Thirdly, recognizing advances in the ability of some developed nations, 

 including our own, to modify the weather both intentionally and inadvert- 

 ently, NACOA advocates intensified national and international discus- 

 sion and development of appropriate regulation. 



The fourth section of the Report, on coastal zone management, though 

 specific to the United States, describes a situation demanding virtually 



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