creased knowledge about the nature of fish stocks. Also, aquaculture may offer new keys to enhanced production in the United States. While FPC offers much promise in strengthening one link of the fishcatching-to-consumption system in the United States and in the developing nations, attention must be devoted to all aspects of the system-particularly market development and harvesting and distribution methods. The initial goal of the FPC demonstration program is to provide adequate quantities of this food additive by 1971 to meet the animal-protein needsten grams per person per day-of at least one million people. Development of the program will, of course, depend on a variety of factors including the success of international marketing programs, industrial contributions to the program, and the pace of technological developments. It has been estimated that if the initial program is successful, a capability could be established by 1975 to provide protein supplement from existing fishing stocks to 7-10 million people. Then, with a self-sustaining industrial base established by 1980, FPC could meet animal-protein needs of over 200 million using only a small percentage of the projected world fish catch. The urgency of the problem is clear. The developing nations contain twothirds of the world's population, and population doubles in most of these nations in from 18 to 27 years. The Food-from-the-Sea program can make an important contribution to meeting their protein needs. "The ocean is the earth's greatest storehouse of minerals. . . . Our search for mineral wealth often leads us back to the seas.” -RACHEL L. CARSON Chapter IV ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENT OF ORES, minerals, and fossil fuels are basic sources of the energy, construction materials, metals, chemicals, and fertilizers required by any advanced industrial economy. The United States thus needs continuous access to an adequate, dependable, and economic supply of raw materials to meet demands of an expanding population with a rising standard of living. Federal policies on mineral resources are designed to contribute to economic development and national security by assisting the Nation in: -developing adequate and dependable supplies of needed mineral raw materials; -acquiring mineral supplies at lowest costs consistent with the satisfaction of other national objectives; emphasizing domestic supplies of mineral resources to assist in maintaining a favorable balance of payments; -providing a climate for American industry to produce efficiently, under competitive conditions, the minerals required for the domestic economy and foreign trade; -conserving the Nation's mineral resources by using them wisely and efficiently; --preserving the quality of the environment while obtaining needed minerals. By 1980, the U.S. consumption of non-fuel minerals is expected to double, and that of petroleum products is expected to increase by about 50 percent from today's base. The United States currently imports 21 percent of its minerals and 13.5 percent of its petroleum; the percentage is considerably higher for certain strategic metals such as manganese. The world-wide demand for minerals also will increase because of industrialization and rising levels of consumption. Such projections create incentives for geological exploration for new reserves and for technological advances to permit use of lower grade sources or substitute materials. Significance of Offshore Production Federal policies on solid mineral resources and fossil fuels have traditionally been based on the assumption that the supply would come very largely from land sources. In recent years, however, the grade of minerals from land sources has decreased and production costs have risen. These trends have motivated industry, with the aid of new technology, to turn to the sea for oil, gas, and sulfur, and to begin to look seaward for new sources of aggregates and other materials. This quest, for the time being, is largely pursued in the relatively shallow waters of the Continental Shelf, which approximates 860,000 square miles, one-third of our present land area. Although little of the U.S. Continental Shelf has been systematically surveyed to determine the presence, distribution, and richness of seabed deposits, this Nation's economy is already benefitting significantly from its resources; this new frontier now provides almost 9 percent of the dollar value of U.S. petroleum production, significant amounts of sulfur, and contributes to national production of other minerals as well. Table IV.1 shows the value of U.S. offshore mineral production. Table IV.2 summarizes recent marine mining activities. Figure IV.1 shows some of the current exploratory drilling around the world. The value of all minerals produced from Federal and State off-shore waters in the past seven years exceeds $6 billion. The value of petroleum production through 1967 from the Outer Continental Shelf lands (under Federal jurisdiction) has totalled about $4 billion, and if State lands are included, over $5 billion. Since the first Federal off-shore lease sale in 1954, 1,276 oil and gas leases have been sold resulting in a total bonus income of almost $2 billion. Federal royalties from production of oil, gas, and sulfur from the Outer Continental Shelf have totalled more than $700 million through 1967, and the Federal Government now receives more than $12 million per month in royalties.1 'The Outer Continental Shelf is that portion of the Shelf beyond three miles from the coast, except along the Gulf coasts of Florida and Texas, where it is defined as beyond three marine leagues. Table IV.1-Value of Mineral Production from Oceans Bordering the United States, 1960–66 Source: Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior. The petroleum industry's continued confidence in the potential of offshore production was demonstrated in the June 1967 Federal lease sale off Louisiana which resulted in $510 million in bonuses bid for 150 tracts. Many tracts were in water depths of more than 300 feet; thus the active bidding indicates that industry expects to have technology for operations in deeper water relatively soon. The Shelf is thus a logical focus for a new era of systematic surveys. The growing world-wide demand for resources, the unexplored areas of the Continental Shelf with geological continuity from adjacent land areas which have yielded great mineral wealth, and scattered positive indications that resources are there, all direct attention to learning more about non-living resources under the sea, as on the Continent itself. See Figure IV.1. Delineation of the distribution and quantity of resources, together with advances in technology to reduce the disparity in costs between on-shore and off-shore extraction operations, will in large measure determine the pace of developing the Shelf. Other factors-legal, economic, and political-will also influence its development in competition with other sources of minerals or their substitutes. Mineral and fuel resources from land sources are developed almost entirely through private investment and initiative. Private industry is expected to continue to take a similar role on the Continental Shelf. A major issue thus is presented: How should Federal policies and activities appropriately evolve to enhance and accelerate sound development by private industry of marine resources on public off-shore lands? Should |