Chapter |: Introduction 
It has been nearly a decade since the Commission 
on Marine Science, Engineering, and Resources 
(Stratton Commission) released its report Our 
Nation and the Sea. During the interim, significant 
changes have occurred in the U.S. use of the occan 
and coastal resources. Because of dwindling land- 
based resources and changes in world economic 
order, the United States has become more dependent 
on the ocean for fuel, food, and routes of commerce. 
An affluent population continues to migrate to the 
coastal region, thus placing burdens upon the coast- 
line for recreation, homes, and industrial sites. 
Since 1969, when Our Nation and the Sea was 
published, the Congress has enacted a number of 
statutes which affect the use of the ocean and its 
resources, such as the Coastal Zone Management 
Act of 1972, Deepwater Ports Act of 1974, Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act of 1976, and 
the Outer Continental! Shelf Lands Act Amendments 
now pending in Congress. Other legislation enacted 
to protect, at least in part, the ocean environment 
and certain marine species include the National En- 
vironmental Policy Act, Ocean Dumping Act, Na- 
tional Ocean Pollution Research and Development 
and Monitoring Planning Act of 1978, Marine Mam- 
mal Protection Act, Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act Amendments of 1972, Ports and Waterways 
Safety Act. and the Clean Water Act of 1977. This 
legislation forms a new body of of aay a sees on 
coastal reg regions ions and their resources. 
During the same period, the United Nations Law 
of the Sea Conference has met repeatedly to seek 
international agreement on a new law of the sea. 
Progress has been painfully slow on the complex 
issues? dealing with deep seabed mining, passage of 
vessels through straits, access to coastal waters for 
scientific studies, protection of the marine environ- 
ment, resolution of conflicts, and creation of eco- 
nomic resource zones. The outcome of this inter- 
national effort, begun in 1973, is still uncertain. In 
the meantime, many nations s have moved unilaterally 
to establish jurisdiction over resources and uses of 
the-ocean_off their shores. It is clear that customary 
international law is moving toward expanded con- 
trol of the offshore areas by the adjoining coastal 
nations. 
In the CQ60°8. ocean policy was synonymous with 
policies pertaining to marine sc science and engineering. 
IL-1 
The tone was set by the space age and the Nation’s 
faith in science and technology as the 1e key t to the 
future. The Stratton Commission’s report understand- 
‘ably focused on developing the Nation’s ocean sci- 
ence and engineering capability in order to use the 
ocean’s resources and protect the marine environ- 
ment. The assumption at that time was that a modest 
investment in technology would result in profitable 
use of ocean resources. We have since learned that it 
is more likely that economic incentives are a more 
powerful inducement to to technological development 
than had been realized, and that technological de- 
velopment_alone will not compensate for a lack of 
commercial potential. 
Since the “blueprint” for U.S. ocean development 
was drawn by the Stratton Commission in 1969, 
national needs have changed. Ocean resources have 
taken on new significance, a phalanx of new legisla- 
tion has created a body of domestic “ocean” law, 
and international boundaries for the purpose of con- 
servation and protection of marine resources and the 
environment are better defined. 
It is often said that the United States has no 
national ocean policy. This is not so. U.S. ocean 
policy is the most sophisticated among the maritime 
nations. Its complexity, however, tends to confuse 
and perplex the casual observer. The framework of 
U.S. ocean policy is contained in a myriad of statutes 
that_authorize scores of programs which are adminis- 
tered by numerous departments and agencies of the 
Federal Government. This framework was developed 
in response to individual ocean problems as they 
arose over time. 
It has been the Congress that has borne the 
burden of developing the Nation’s ocean policy in 
recent years. In general, past Presidents have paid 
little attention to the ocean as a resource to be 
managed and protected. 
As the emphasis on the ocean changes from one 
centered in marine science _and_t technology to one 
concerned for the wise_use, conservation, and pro- 
tection of ocean resources | ‘and the marine e1 environ- 
ment,_it_is S appropriate to review the Federal laws, 
institutions, and programs that tt have been ‘been developed 
since Our Nation and the Sea was published. 
In many ways, this study is a progress report of 
what the Stratton Commission began in 1965. It is 
not intended to, nor could it, supplant the work of 
that prestigious group. Rather, the study is intended 
