be now when they are influenced by tales of the 

 untold riches to be extracted from the deep seas. 



Finally, it is maintained, delay will not harm 

 the United States because its technological and 

 financial capabihties will enable it to compete in 

 spite of the uncertainties of the status quo. 



In many respects, the panel finds these argu- 

 ments persuasive, but on the whole it concludes 

 that it would be unwise for the United States to 

 accept them. As we pointed out in connection 

 with similar arguments advanced by the National 

 Petroleum Council, they underestimate the mutu- 

 ally reinforcing relationship that can exist between 

 scientific, technological and economic planning, 

 on the one hand, and legal-political framework 

 planning, on the other. 



Furthermore, unless a new framework is de- 

 vised, some venturesome governments and private 

 entrepreneurs will act in accordance with one or 

 the other of the undesirable alternatives possible 

 under the uncertain status quo and in time create 

 faits accomplis that would be difficult to change, 

 even though they adversely affected the interests 

 of the United States and the international commu- 

 nity. These consequences might be avoided if a 

 wait-and-see poUcy were accompanied by a mora- 

 torium on exploration and exploitation beyond 

 the 200-meter isobath, an alternative proposed by 

 some United Nations diplomats.* ' 



But it is akeady United States pohcy to lease 

 submarine areas for mineral resources exploration 

 and exploitation at greater and greater depths.** 



°'See Marine Science Affairs 1968, at 30; 22 U.N. 

 GAOR, Provisional Verbation Record of the 1527th 

 Meeting of the First Committee 56 (U.N. Doc. No. A/C. 

 1/PV. 1527, Nov. 14, 1967.) 



See Charles F. Luce (Under Secretary of the In- 

 terior), The Development of Ocean Minerals and the Law 

 of the Sea, American Bar Association National Institute 

 on Marine Resources, Long Beach, California, June 8, 

 1967, at 2, 4; Frank J. Barry (then Solicitor of the 

 Interior Department), Administration of Laws for the 

 Exploitation of Offshore Minerals in the United States 

 and Abroad, American Bar Association National Institute 

 on Marine Resources, Long Beach, California, June 9, 

 1967, at 12, 13; Memorandum from Associate Solicitor, 

 Division of PubUc Lands, to Bureau of Land Management 

 on Seaward Limits of the Outer Continental Shelf, Nov. 

 29, 1967; Memorandum from Oil and Gas Supervisor, 

 Gulf Coast Region, to Chief, Branch of Oil and Gas 

 Operations on Seaward Limits of the Outer Continental 

 Shelf, Nov. 7, 1967; Memorandum from Oil and Gas 

 Supervisor, Eastern Region, to Chief, Branch of Oil and 

 Gas Operations on Seaward Limits of the Outer Conti- 

 nental Shelf, Nov. 3, 1967; and Memorandum from 

 Regional Oil and Gas Supervisor, to Chief, Branch of Oil 

 and Gas Operations on Activities on the Outer Conti- 

 nental Shelf off the Pacific Coast, Nov. 2, 1967. 



Except where otherwise indicated the following data 

 are taken from the above sources. 



It should be recalled, in considering these data, that 

 the mineral resources of the seabed and subsoil underlying 

 the territorial sea (defined for this purpose as three miles 

 off the coasts of all states of the United States except 

 Texas and Florida; nine miles off the coasts of Texas and 

 Florida) were given to the coastal states of the United 

 States by the Submerged Lands Act. 67 Stat. 29 

 (1953), 43 U.S.C. §§1301-1303, 1311-1315 (1964). The 

 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 67 Stat. 462, 43 

 U.S.C. §§1331-43 (1964), reserves to the United States 

 the mineral resources of the seabed and subsoil of the 

 remainder of the continental shelf. 



Until the Santa Barbara oil lease auction, the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior had granted 18 leases for exploita- 

 tion of oil resources in waters near the United States but 

 beyond 600 feet in depth. Some of these are in waters as 

 deep as 1,800 feet or as far as 35 miles from shore. All 

 but three have apparently been relinquished. 



In bidding concluded on Feb. 6, 1968, 71 tracts 

 (540,600 acres) of federal lands located in the Santa 



Barbara channel (between the California mainland and the 

 channel islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and 

 Anacapa) were leased by private industry. Bonuses total- 

 ing $602,719,261.60 were paid for 363,181 acres lying 

 beneath waters ranging in depth from 90 to 1,800 feet. 

 About 60 percent of the acreage was in waters more than 

 200 meters deep, some as deep as 1,800 feet. Eight tracts 

 beyond the 20()-meter isobath brought bids ranging from 

 $6 miUion to $27 million. Ocean Industry, May 1968, at 

 42-43. 



In addition, the Department has issued 50 geophysical 

 and geological permits on the Pacific Coast and 14 on the 

 East Coast in areas that are in excess of 200 meters and 

 up to 100 miles off the coast. It has authorized 21 core 

 holes off the West Coast, some as far as 13.8 miles from 

 land or 1,000 feet in water depth. It has also published 

 OCS Leasing Maps indicating an intent to assume juris- 

 diction over the ocean bottom as far as 100 mUes off the 

 Southern California Coast in water depths as great as 

 6,000 feet. 



Off the East Coast, 34 core holes have been dug, some 

 of which are 4,873 feet deep and up to 210 miles from 

 land. On the Gulf Coast, 135 core holes have been 

 permitted in waters beyond 600 feet, one at 4,354 feet 

 and 177 miles from shore. 



The Department has also issued six leases for the 

 mining of phosphate rock from the ocean floor located on 

 the Forty-mile Bank, 43 mUes offshore from San Diego 

 and 25 miles southwest of San Clemente Island, in water 

 depths varying from 240 feet to 4,000 feet, but mostly 

 greater than 600 feet. 



The United States has threatened litigation to prevent 

 a private group from building a private island on Cortez 

 Bank, a rise in the ocean floor about 50 miles from San 

 Clemente Island and 100 mUes from the California 

 mainland. The rise is only five meters deep at its 

 shallowest point, but is separated from San Clemente 

 Island and the mainland by ocean floor trenches as much 

 as 4,000 to 5,000 feet deep. 



Interior Deputy Solicitor Edward Weinberg wrote a 

 letter to Brigadier General John A. B. DiUiard of the 

 Corps of Engineers expressing the opinion that Cortez 

 Bank was an area over which the United States had 

 jurisdiction under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 

 and the Continental Shelf Convention. The letter went on 

 to state that the Interior Department would regard the 

 attempt to create the private island as a trespass and 

 would request the Attorney General to enjoin it. 



Vin-24 



