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21 Ocean L. Memo 1 (1981)

handle is hein.journals/ocoaslme21 and id is 1 raw text is: Ocean and Coastal Law Center * School of Law * University of Oregon * Eugene -97403' Ocean Law Memo October, 1981 SEABED MINING, OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION, AND AQUACULTURE: NEW FEDERAL LEGISLATION During 1980 Congress added three new laws to the ocean and coastal legislation of the 1970's. They are the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act (Seabed Mining Act), the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Act (OTEC Act), and the National Aqua- culture Policy, Planning and Development Act (Aquaculture Act). Implementation of the Seabed Mining Act has begun and the first applications for exploratory licenses are expected to be submitted in the near future. Implementing regulations for the OTEC Act have been published, but imple- mentation of the Aquaculture Act depends more on future Congressional appropriations decisions. The long-range implications of all three laws are significant. This Ocean Law Memo summarizes the major pro- visions of all three acts and discusses important issues raised by them. DEEP SEABED HARD MINERAL RESOURCES ACT In June, 1980, Congress passed the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. The Act was intended to improve the invest- ment climate for private ocean mining interests during the interim period prior to the effective date of a Law of the Sea treaty to be adopted by the U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). At the time of passage, it appeared likely that such a treaty would someday regulate sea- bed mining on an international level. The domestic Deep Seabed Mining Act may have increased in importance now that the Reagan administration has stalled U.S. participation in UNCLOS negotiations, pending review in particular of the pro- posed treaty's seabed mining provisions. The Act deals with the mining of man- ganese nodules, fist-sized lumps of minerals found primarily on the deep sea- bed in international waters at depths of 12,000 to 20,000 feet. The nodules con- tain manganese, iron, nickel, copper and cobalt. Some estimates place the potential supply of nodules as high as 1.5 trillion 130 U.S.C. S 1401. E Distributed by: OSU Extension Service' Sea tons. Manganese, cobalt and nickel are considered to be strategic to U.S. in- dustrial and national security interests, because they are used to impart strength and temperature and corrosion resistance to steel alloys. The U.S. currently im- ports virtually all of its supply of these metals from a handful of foreign sources, many of them in the Third World. The Act is premised on the belief that the U.S. must develop its own source of these strategic minerals to ensure a supply in the event of worldwide shortages, price dislocations or political disruptions. It was Congress' view that substantial investment and a relatively long lead time are needed to develop fully the technology and capability necessary for commercial exploitation of the nodule resource. Congress feared that this private invest- ment would not take place because of the uncertainty as to the nature of an UNCLOS treaty regime and the degree of seabed access the treaty rules would provide to investing U.S. companies. Therefore, Congress enacted this legislation with the stated purposes of both encouraging the completion of a Law of the Sea treaty and creating a domestic legal regime to en- courage private investment and technology development. The Act also creates an interim regulatory program to ensure that ocean mining is conducted in a manner which conserves the resources, protects the environment and promotes safety at sea. RELATIONSHIP OF THE ACT TO A FUTURE LAW OF THE SEA TREATY The Act provides that any future Law of the Sea treaty to which the U.S. be- comes a party will supersede the Act, but only to the extent that the two legal regimes are inconsistent with each other. Congress included several provisions in the Act addressing fears expressed by U.S. miners about a future international treaty. Grant Marine Advisory Program, Corvallis, OR 97331 ISSue 21 October, 1981

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