The first session of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea ended in Caracas, Venezuela in late August without reaching agreement on a single article of a convention on the law of the sea. The Conference is scheduled to reassemble for another two-month session in March, 1975 at Geneva, and the conferees left open the possibility of a return to Caracas next summer for final negotiations and signing of a treaty. While the governmental members of the United States delegation are displaying optimism in their public statements about what was achieved at Caracas, there is considerable discouragement in most other quarters about the prospects for the timely conclusion of an acceptable treaty. The anxiety of environmentalists is particularly acute.

Even by United Nations standards, the Third Law of the Sea Conference is a monumental undertaking in international diplomacy. One hundred and fifty nations are searching for common ground on a staggering variety of highly technical issues with global political and economic implications. Their goal is to transform the oceans into a "common heritage of mankind" governed by a comprehensive scheme of international law and administration that touches on every phase of human activity in or on the seas. While it is widely agreed that only a treaty that deals with all oceanic activity can properly and effectively accommodate mankind's diverse interests in the oceans, the very number and complexity of the terms to be negotiated may prove to be the critical impediment to the conclusion of a treaty that can enjoy widespread international acceptance.