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

Knowledge-Based Regime Analysis 71
coordination were required. The experimental and review papers were
mostly concerned with pollution of rivers and atmospheric fallout. Ocean
dumping received little attention. In the discussion it was pointed out, however,
that the future impact of marine pollution on a large scale would derive
from ocean dumping. Serious concern should therefore be given to the
future development of disposal of waste by ocean dumping. Harmful substances
were reaching the ocean from coasts, through rivers and the atmosphere,
but the substances disposed of by ocean dumping—radioactive
materials, chemical weapons, and ammunition—were particularly toxic
and persistent. The participants concluded therefore that “in future there is
all the more an urgent need to improve the knowledge and information
about the aspects of pollution by ocean dumping before any future control
of ocean dumping can work efficiently” (ibid., p. 96). The recommendations
said that the FAO, in cooperation with other bodies, should “review
the widespread practice of dumping wastes, especially toxic or persistent
substances in the world oceans and encourage international studies of
selected dumping sites to make a scientific evaluation of both the short and
long-term effects of such practices, and bring about cessation of the practice
of dumping containers of waste and other obstacles in present and
potential fishing grounds, and establish a system of registration to cover
the dumping of all persistent and or highly toxic pollutants into the sea”
(ibid., p. 95). But the FAO was not involved in the preparations already
underway to establish a regional arrangement for protection of the North
Sea against ocean dumping (the Oslo Convention), and it did get only indirectly
involved in the preparations for the global ocean dumping regime,
initiated only a few months after the marine pollution conference.
Conclusions
Quite contrary to propositions made by scholars stressing the influence of
scientific and technical knowledge on decision making, the Nixon administration
proposed regulation of ocean dumping, although scientific evidence
of damage to the oceans was almost nonexistent in the early 1970s.
Despite a lack of knowledge, the Nixon administration considered ocean
dumping a domestic environmental problem of some importance and
urgency. Moreover, because of ocean dumping’s international character, the