95 



IMCO is broken down into various committees and subcommittees. 

 "\^'ith specific regard to marine pollution, the United States has made 

 a proposal at the last IMCO Council, which ended on June 8 of this 

 year, proposing the creation of a Marine Environment Protection 

 Committee which would help facilitate the operation of the various 

 marine pollution conventions. That committee is envisioned to be open 

 ended, and all members of IMCO, plus all signatories of the ne\y IMCO 

 Convention dealing with this area would have a say in amending pro- 

 cedures and in the supervision of operations in this held. 



Senator Stemsns. Have you people worked with Mr. Train on his 

 new proposal for the marine environmental pollution committee? As 

 I unclerstand it, it would be a subcommittee of IMCO ^ 



Mr. Bank. Yes, sir. I was with Chairman Train in London last week. 



Senator Ste\tens. What has been the acceptance of that concept 

 with respect to proceeding with some group ? I think he said it would 

 act as a permanent watchdog against ocean pollution. 



Mr. Bank. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive within the 

 IMCO council, which has 18 members. We received support for not 

 only the principle of a permanent committee for IMCO, but for the 

 I'nited States' specific proposals on the meeting to set up this 

 committee. 



There will be a further session later on this summer which will set 

 forth the terms of reference for the committee. The committee will re- 

 port informally to the October marine pollution conference, and have 

 its report prepared for the next extraordinary session of the council of 

 IMCO. which is to take place in the 2nd week of November of this year. 



At this point, the assembly, the governing l)ody of IMCO, will ap- 

 prove the committee which will be functioning, hopefully by the end 

 of this calendar year. 



Our support from the council ranged from Poland, which was the 

 first country to come out strongly in favor of our proposal, through the 

 traditional maritime countries, as well as the less developed countries 

 and the coastal states such as India, and one of the coastal states most 

 interested in pollution, Australia. 



Senator Stevens. Has the discussion of the age of the world tanker 

 fleet been raised at IMCO, to your knowledge? 



Mr. Bank. Yes, sir, it was. It is raised more in the technical area 

 of IMCO. As you are aware. Senator, the technical aspects of IMCO, 

 both in safetv of life at sea as well as in pollution are handled to a 

 great extent by our Coast Guard experts. In this regard, the age of 

 the tanker fleet plus the basic pollution and safety factors which are 

 associated wnth aging ships and ships in general are discussed. They 

 represent a major portion of the discussions in IINICO technical bodies. 



Senator Ste\'ens. I have an impression these aging vessels are never 

 retired, but are just passed on to someone else. If we were to do the 

 same thing with other forms of transportation, air freight, automo- 

 bile truck or, rail, we never would obtain the level of safety that exists 

 in the world in the other forms of transportation. 



Is this wrong? Is there any entity in the world that is going toward 

 absolutely retiring any of these ancient vessels ? 



Mr. Bank. I think through the IMCO safety and pollution re- 

 quirements, that the end result will be reached. We find the retirement 

 of the vessels, and their nonuse, is an economic matter. There are two 



