Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

70 Chapter 4
General Assembly declare that a state of environmental emergency exists on
the planet Earth.” 35 Among the proposals for future action were the establishment
of national, regional, and worldwide commissions on environmental
deterioration and rehabilitation. However, more precise indications
were not given.
The beginning of the United Nations’ interest in international control of
marine pollution was signaled by a General Assembly request from 1969
that the Secretary-General conduct a survey among member states on
desires for international arrangements for regulation and reduction of ocean
pollution. 36 The responses from 44 countries showed a general concern with
the increasing threat of pollution to the ocean environment and with the
need for international prevention and control of ocean pollution. It was
reported that no existing international agreement effectively controlled
marine pollution. Existing agreements were too broad, and there was no
proper enforcement of many of the concepts agreed to. Other agreements
were narrow and did not cover the existing range of pollution problems
(Schenker 1973, p. 41).
The UN’s more specialized agencies also involved themselves in ocean
dumping. In 1969, the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization
conducted a survey among its member countries on the kind and
amount of materials which were disposed of from ships and barges in the
ocean (IMCO Document OPS/Circ.15, May 13, 1969, also appendix to
GESAMP report no. 22, 10 February 1970). The general picture showed
that some control of dumping existed within territorial waters but that there
was almost no control of dumping on the high seas (Böhme 1972, p. 105).
In December of 1970, the FAO organized “the first attempt to make a
worldwide scientific approach to marine pollution and its effects on the living
resources of the oceans” (ibid., p. 91). The Technical Conference on
Marine Pollution and its Effects on Living Resources and Fishing was held
in Rome from December 9 to December 18, 1970. Invitations had been sent
to all FAO member nations and associate members, to UN agencies, to
intergovernmental organizations, and to nongovernmental bodies interested
in ocean pollution. Almost 400 individuals attended the conference,
most of them scientists and experts in the various fields of marine pollution
but some from industry or government. They came from more than 65
countries. In addition to its scientific objectives, the conference intended to
focus attention on pollution problems where international cooperation and