unprecedented management efforts to weave together and rationalize the 

 conflicting and at times incompatible needs of the many different users 

 of this resource. The coastal zone is not only complex naturally, it is 

 also the focus for an unusual confluence of national, regional, state, and 

 local interests. Which is David and which Goliath when it comes to the 

 oil terminal or the bathing beach? the oyster or the dredge? Here again 

 NACOA finds that the nation's science and technology can be more effec- 

 tively used in support of management. It is on the means for promoting 

 a more effective interaction between management and science that the 

 discussion of the coastal zone centers. 



Finally, in a brief section titled "Moving Ahead" NACOA emphasizes 

 the urgent need for action and for facing up to the pervasive impact on 

 our society that appropriate action will have. The alternative, doing 

 nothing, is in our view unthinkable. The days of the open ocean and 

 limitless air are gone. The oceans and the atmosphere belong to all rather 

 than to none, and it is in our common interest to enhance the use and de- 

 crease the abuse to which they are made subject. 



