the Gulf coast of Rorida where it corresponds to 

 the three marine leagues (10.5 miles) limit that 

 represents the historical boundaries of those 

 States. 



The 1958 Geneva Convention on the Conti- 

 nental Shelf defined the Continental Shelf to refer 



(a) to the seabed and subsoil of the submarine 

 areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of 

 the territorial sea, to a depth of 200 meters or, 

 beyond that limit, to where the depth of the 

 superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of 

 the natural resources of the said areas; (b) to the 

 seabed and subsoil of similar submarine areas 

 adjacent to the coasts of islands. 



Inasmuch as experimental drilling has already 

 been undertaken at a depth of 11,700 feet, it 

 seems desirable that the limits of the continental 

 shelves and slopes be extended to their bathy- 

 metric and geologic boundaries, or to some arbi- 

 trarily estabhshed depth or distance from shore 

 that approximates these boundaries. For practical 

 purposes, the U.S. continental shelves and slopes, 

 as they would be defined bathymetrically, lie 

 largely within the 2500 meter contour. ^^ Con- 

 versely, not much of the ocean floor and conti- 

 nental rise extend coastward beyond this same 

 contour. 



Sulphur and other types of hard minerals may 

 occur in the continental slopes as well as in the 

 shelves. The slopes between the 200 and 2500 

 meter contours around the United States include 

 about 479,000 square statute miles. Under present 

 international law the United States does not have 

 clear legal jurisdiction over the slopes. 



Recommendation: 



An international legal regime is needed that will 

 provide protection for the mineral exploiter in 

 waters seaward of the 200 meter isobath. A regime 

 that the panel believes to be satisfactory is 

 described in detail in the report of the Interna- 

 tional Panel. 



The location of our boundaries with adjacent 

 nations on the continental shelves and slopes has 

 not been defined. Lack of definition of these 

 boundaries will eventually lead to dispute when 

 marine mining becomes feasible. 



Recommendation : 



The Federal Government should take the neces- 

 sary steps as soon as possible to determine its 

 offshore boundaries with adjacent nations. 



The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act was 

 written principally to regulate oil and gas explora- 

 tion and exploitation and may be inappropriate to 

 the needs of the hard mineral mining industry. 

 However, activities of the latter industry are at 

 present governed by the Act. Under the provisions 

 of the Act the Department of the Interior was 

 vested with authority to issue oil and gas and 

 mineral leases for the submerged lands of the 

 Continental Shelf of the United States and to issue 

 geological and geophysical exploration permits 

 with respect to the shelf. The outer limits of the 

 Continental Shelf were not specified as to depth or 

 distance from shore by the Act. Recently the 

 Department of the Interior issued leases on the 

 coasts of California and Oregon where some or all 

 of the waters above the leased tracts have been 

 more than 200 meters deep^* (as much as 1500 

 feet deep and 30 to 35 miles from shore). In the 

 Atlantic the waters covered by exploration permits 

 for geophysical work and core drilling are as deep 

 as 3,000 to 5,000 feet and the areas are as much as 

 100 to 200 miles from shore. The fact that such 

 leases and permits have been issued indicates that 

 the United States believes that developers should 

 be given an opportunity to ascertain whether the 

 lands beneath these deeper waters are susceptible 

 of exploitation. Thus, the outer limit of the 

 Continental Shelf, as defined by the existing laws, 

 is extremely flexible and vague. 



Another area in which existing laws are not 

 explicit pertains to the offshore boundaries of 

 coastal nations. Where is the boundary between 

 Maine and Nova Scotia 100 miles at sea? So far, 

 exploration leases have not been requested in areas 



V. E. McKelvey, et al. "Potential Mineral Resources 

 of the United States Outer Continental Shelves," unpub- 

 lished report of the Geological Survey to the Public Land 

 Law Review Commission, March 1968. 



^* Report by Solicitor, Department of the Interior, to 

 National Council on Marine Resources and Engineering 

 Development, Feb. 14, 1968. 



VII-115 



