Word: oceaneering
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Even oceanographers have been running into unaccustomed political storms. Marine scientists have discovered that the more they reveal about the secrets-and hidden wealth-of the seas, the more they find access to their vast oceanic laboratory being barred by chary governments. Jealously guarding what they believe to be their private offshore Klondikes, more and more coastal nations have been applying the same restrictions on oceanographic studies as they have on offshore fishing. The Brazilians, for example, allow no unauthorized exploration within their 200-mile limit; they do not want outsiders charging around making discoveries that may bring multinational...
...point where the sea was 650 ft. deep, "or beyond that limit to where the depth of the superadjacent waters admits of exploitation of the natural resources." In other words, a country could keep on claiming offshore waters all the way to the other side of the ocean, if it had the necessary technology...
...while only the U.S. and the Soviet Union had much interest in the deep seabeds, and only because the ocean floor was an ideal place to hide the electronic paraphernalia of war-special devices, for example, to track each other's submarines. But the 1960s brought a greater awareness of the widening differences between the have and have-not nations and, consequently, a new concern about resources. In 1967 Arvid Pardo, then Malta's Ambassador to the U.N., noted in a rousing speech in the General Assembly that the deep seabeds were littered with minerals, notably commercially valuable...
...industry objected almost immediately. Having found rich deposits of oil and natural gas way beyond the three-or even twelve-mile limit, oilmen wanted the new laws to extend national ocean rights out to the edge of the continental shelf. Energy needs, they argued through the Interior Department, should take precedence over defense considerations...
Some metal-exporting countries -mainly Zaire, Chile and Zambia -want the world to forget about ocean mining altogether. Most other developing nations, however, want the proposed seabed authority to develop the deposits of manganese nodules, and then return 100% of the profits to them. The Soviets have already responded to that idea: "Unacceptable, inequitable and disadvantageous." All the industrial powers, including the U.S., object to the idea that they should make the investments, provide the technology and take the risks for the benefit of the poor countries. Their counterproposal: the international authority should set rules for deep-sea mining, license...