Ch. 1— Summary, Issues, and Options • 23 



EEZ. Unfortunately, they are also considered to 

 be invaluable tools for navigating and positioning 

 potential hostile submarines within the EEZ. As a 

 consequence, the U.S. Navy has taken steps to clas- 

 sify and restrict the public dissemination of high- 

 resolution bathymetric charts produced by NOAA's 

 National Ocean Services in the EEZ. 



NOAA's plans for exploring the EEZ include 

 broad-scale, atlas-like coverage of the EEZ with 

 high-resolution bathymetry. The plan is applauded 

 by the academic community, but the Navy, con- 

 cerned about the national security implications of 

 public release of such data, opposes NOAA's plan 

 unless security can be assured. Negotiations be- 

 tween NOAA and the Navy continue in an attempt 

 to resolve the classification issue. Suggestions by 

 the Navy that bathymetric data may be skewed or 

 altered in a random fashion to reduce its strategic 

 usefulness have been met by protests from the re- 

 search community that claim its usefulness for re- 

 search Eilso would be reduced. 



There is litde doubt that the Navy's strategic con- 

 cern over the value of high-resolution bathymetry 

 to potentially hostile forces is well founded. How- 

 ever, critics of the Navy's position cite mitigating 

 factors that they consider to undermine the Navy's 

 security argument, such as the availability of multi- 

 beam technology in foreign vessels; the U.S. pol- 

 icy of open access for research in the EEZ , which 

 would allow foreign vessels to gather similar data; 

 and the stringent criteria for classification estab- 

 lished by the Navy that could include existing 

 bathymetric charts that have been in the public do- 

 main for some time. 



The importance of high-resolution bathymetry 

 to efficient exploration of the EEZ is apparent. Both 

 the Navy and the scientific community have failed 

 to effectively communicate their concerns to each 

 other. To ensure that the scientific community has 

 access to precise bathymetry to facilitate the explo- 

 ration of the EEZ and at the same time to protect 

 the national security, a flexible policy must be 

 agreed to and supported by all parties. Undoubt- 

 edly, there will be appreciable financial costs con- 

 nected to such a policy, but it should be consid- 

 ered a cost of doing the government's business in 

 the modern, high-technology research envi- 

 ronment. 



Before the marine mining industry will invest 

 substantially in commercial prospecting in the EEZ, 

 it must have assurances that the Federal Govern- 

 ment will encourage development and grant access 

 to the private sector to explore and develop seabed 

 minerals. While the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 

 Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to lease 

 non-energy minerals as well as oil and gas in the 

 Outer Continental Shelf, little guidance is provided 

 by the legislation for structuring a hard mineral 

 leasing program. There also is disagreement as to 

 whether the Secretary's mineral leasing authority 

 can be extended to areas beyond the limits of the 

 continental shelf in the EEZ. Furthermore, the bid- 

 ding requirements for hard mineral leases, which 

 require advance payment of money before a mine 

 site is delineated, may not be workable for EEZ 

 hard minerals. New marine mining legislation is 

 needed to ensure the seabed mining industry that 

 it will have a suitable Federal leasing program in 

 place when it is needed. 



SUMMARY AND FINDINGS 



With a few possible exceptions (e.g., sand and 

 gravel and precious metals), the commercial pros- 

 pects for developing marine minerals within the Ex- 

 clusive Economic Zone appear to be remote for the 

 foreseeable future. There is currendy no operational 

 domestic seabed mining industry per se, although 

 some international mining consortia have a con- 

 tinuing interest in deep seabed manganese nodules 

 and perhaps cobalt-manganese crusts in the EEZ. 



One land-based mining company is currendy oper- 

 ating a gold mining dredge in Alaskan State waters, 

 and sand is being mined at the entrance to New 

 York Harbor. Commercial interest in some near- 

 shore placer deposits and Blake Plateau manganese 

 nodules has occurred sporadically. Because of the 

 economic uncertainties and financial risks of EEZ 

 mining, it is doubtful that the private sector will 

 undertake substantial exploration in the EEZ until 



