211 



of reacting to problems after they arise. Tlie Sierra Club can have an impact on 

 these developments vk'hich take place in the U. N. since it has been accredited as 

 a nongovernmental organization before the U. N., and the New York office is in 

 a position to offer the Club's viewpoints to the U. N., its various sijecialized 

 agencies, and to the member countries. In this way the Sierra Club can attempt 

 to influence various governments by making them aware of the problem of marine 

 pollution and by convincing them that it is in everyone's interest to arrive at 

 solutions which are environmentally sound. 



n. PRIOR SIERRA CLUB INVOLVEMENT IN THE LAW OF THE SEA 



The Sierra Club'vS attempt to formulate an overall policy on the law of the 

 sea is consistent with its past efforts in this particular area. At various times 

 the Club has made its views known on a number of international treaties affect- 

 ing the oceans. It submitted testimony on the two 1969 Brussels conventions re- 

 lating to intervention on the high seas to prevent a threatened oil catastrophe, 

 and establishing civil liability of the $14,000,000 for oil pollution damage from 

 ships. It has also recently testified on amendments to the 1954 London conven- 

 tion for the Prevention of Oil Polution of the Seas and the 1971 International 

 Convention on an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Dam- 

 age. Last year it testified on HR13094 concerning environmental problems of 

 allowing the United States to unilaterally license seabed mineral development 

 anywhere on the ocean floor. Thus the present report continues the Club's prior 

 commitments to preserving the environmental quality of the world's oceans. 



III. THE SCOPE OF M.VRINE POLLUTION AND THE OTHER DETERIORATION OF THE 



oceans' ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 



There is little doubt that the oceans are subjected to intense and widespread 

 pollution. This fact is evidenced by such incidents as the wreck of the Torrey 

 Canyon, the blowouts of offshore wells in Santa Barbara and the Gulf of Mexico, 

 the disposal of nerve gas on the high seas, the poisoning of edible marine 

 species, such as sword fish and tuna, and the diminution of certain bird popula- 

 tions because of DDT. 



Recent scientific observations show that pollution is not confined to discrete, 

 limited local areas ; but rather it is a problem of global dimensions affecting 

 the entire marine environment. Thor Heyerdahl in the expedition of Ra II 

 recorded continuous pollution of oil and other inorganic wastes at points far 

 distant from land and concluded that this would have an irreparable effect 

 on the survival of many species. Oceanographers warn that man is imposing 

 a very serious, perhaps intolerable, strains on the ecological balance of marine 

 life. .Jacques Costeau warns that marine pollution has destroyed a significant 

 portion of oceanic life in the last twenty years, perhaps as high as forty per- 

 cent ; and Jacques Piccard predicts death of life in all oceans by the end of the 

 century if marine pollution is not soon abated. 



While some may view such general conclusions somewhat skeptically, recent 

 rei>orts of the United Nations agencies confirm these general admonitions with 

 detailed factual evidence. Thus the Food and Agricultural Organiz,ation of the 

 United Nations has predicted the destruction of valuable commercial fisheries, 

 including tuna, salmon, sturgeon and shrimp, unless immediate ,and drastic 

 action is taken at the international level to control marine pollution. Other 

 United Nations' reports warn that pollution may grow, not diminish, when 

 marine technology is developed to permit a commercially profitable recovery of 

 deep sea mineral resources, such as manganese nodules and other substances. 

 The United Nations Joint Group of E^fperts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine 

 Pollution (GESAMP) has warned that certain chemicals in the marine environ- 

 ment must be given high priority for abatement because of their toxic, accumula- 

 tive and persistent qualities and their widespread absorption in the chain of 

 marine life. Finally, the Stockholm conference, which briefly studied these 

 problems, recommended or endorsed certain principles calling for the control 

 and elimination of marine pollution, but that conference left the resolution of 

 those problems to the 1973 IMCO and U.N. conference on the law of the sea. 



A detailed analysis or summary of each of the.se studies would be repetitive 

 and lumecessary, and copies are attached for reference. It is clear from these re- 

 ports, and the admonitions of oceanographers that marine pollution is a global 

 problem which affects the entire marine environment. Pollution has so permeated 

 the interrelated chain of marine life that the U.N. warns that it seriously 



