VIII 



the auspices of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration 

 (IDOE) program. Thirty -two nations are contributing to this pro- 

 gram which is directed toward the preservation of the quality of the 

 marine environment. In this regard, IDOE has sponsored an intensive 

 project aimed at making measurements at sea of the concentration of 

 compounds considered potentially hazardous to man or marine life. 



It is hoped that a significant part of the newly created United Na- 

 tions Fund on the Environment will be devoted to work in the marine 

 pollution abatement area. One international program is already un- 

 derway which promises to assist in efforts to monitor marine pollution. 

 The Integrated Global Ocean Station System (IGOSS) program has 

 already been collecting information about ocean temperatures from 

 ships of many nations and relaying same to national data centers 

 where the information is used to i^redict the movements of large scale 

 ocean weather systems. Further plans include a program that would 

 require ships at sea to report fightings of oil slicks, flotable debris, 

 plastics, and tar balls thus providing a measure of the severity of 

 ocean pollution problems. 



Another international cooperative program just begim, and also 

 mider U.N. guidance, is the Global Investigation of Pollution of the 

 Marine Environment, GIPME of the Intergoverimiental Ocean- 

 graphic Commission. This is a cooperative program of scientific re- 

 search concerned with marine pollution carried out primarily in the 

 national laboratories of cooperating nations. It deals with sources 

 and inputs of pollutants into the ocean ; their transfer and transfor- 

 mation by physical, chemical, and biological processes; their effects 

 on marine organisms ; and their fate in the ocean ecosystem. 



The Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization 

 (IMCO) also continues its regulatory activities and concern with the 

 problems of pollution from shipping activity. In this regard, IIMCO 

 has been responsible for significant treaty regulations regarding ves- 

 sel pollution. 



Enforcement. — ^Where the protection of the marine environment is 

 concerned, the importance of creating an international mechanism 

 with the capacity to enforce the provisions of pollution conventions 

 cannot be overemphasized. This international regulatory machinery 

 should be able to exercise jurisdiction both from a geographic point of 

 view — areas beyond territorial limits as well as within, and from the 

 point of view of the sources of injury to the environment, includiiig 

 those that occur on land in addition to those activities taking place in 

 the ocean itself. 



