435 



We are ^oing to liave to work at it. We are going to liave to invest 

 money and time and management skills. In my opinion one of the 

 things that is atl'ecting our marine resources industries, most par- 

 ticularly fisheries, is lack of proper attention to modern management 

 skills. 



Every effort should he made, as COMSER has indicated, to keep 

 waste and unnecessary duplication to a minimum and to maximize our 

 collective capabilities hut there will be no easy solutions. We must 

 analyze and build, reorganize, restructure and refinance, renovate, and 

 review our scientific and management programs. However, we must 

 avoid the easy option of unnecessary or unjustified replication or of 

 reorganizations and renamings which accomplish little. 



It won't do merely to establish a new agency, rename it and not 

 do anything to improve its operations capability. 



Turning attention briefly to Virginia you should know that our opin- 

 ions on the COMSEK report and its recommendations are essentially 

 the same as those developed by the executive committee of the Council 

 of Maritime States, Commonwealths, and Territories presented above. 



The Commonwealth's direct dependence on the marine environment 

 is clear. Some 30 of about 00 counties within Virginia are in the 

 "Greater Tidewater" or "Maritime Virginia" areas. On or near the 

 coast are her major cities, commerce, industries, tourist activities, and 

 poi^ulation pressures. I have attached a copy of Marine Resources of 

 Virginia which is somewhat outdated but it indicates that Virginia 

 has been aware for some time of the importance of its Coastal Zone. 



(The information follows:) 



The Marine Resources of Virginia, Their Development, Use and 



Preservation 



an abstract 



Virginia's marine resources encompass all the physical, biological and aesthetic 

 attributes of her 13,000 square miles of marine waters and bottoms and 4,000 

 statute miles of shorelines, beaches and marshland. 



The economy of the Commonwealth is closely related to these valuable re- 

 sources. Maritime A^irginia, that region extending from the Continental Shelf 

 to the fall line of the ocean's tributaries is our most populous, productive and 

 fastest growing area. Sixty percent of all Virginians live in one third of the 

 counties and the population increase has been 98 percent in twenty years. A 37 

 IJercent increase is anticipated in the next six (6) years along the .Tames. Seven 

 billions of dollars change hands annually. 



The combined forces of population, industrial, recreational and shipping growth 

 along with more military activity are placing greater and greater demands on the 

 marine environment for water, food, recreation, building sites and waste disposal. 

 While these sociological and economic segments enjoy the blessings of Virginia's 

 marine resoiu-ces, they also degrade them, often in such a way that nature, 

 unaided, cannot compensate. 



Destructive degradation must be prevented or minimized. To do this there is 

 need for better planning and management, for better standards. This will involve 

 modern decision-making te<-hniques such as operations research or re.^ource engi- 

 neering using latest methods for analysis and decision, plus more adequate plan- 

 ning — even zoning, plus more realistic legislative and executive and private regu- 

 lation of marine resource uses and users. 



All these activities recpiire facts, knowledge about the resources, themselves, 

 and the pressures to which they are or will be subjected. This means continuing 

 research on marine resources and continuing evaluation of their u.sage and con- 

 dition. Education of and cooperation between science, the public and political 

 persons and groups in an absolute necessity. 



