The substance and direction of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 have antecedents in earlier governmental programs. The Act evolved through phases emphasizing, in turn, concern with recreation, estuary protection, ocean development, and land use policy. The fact that the act reflects something of each of these concerns and incorporates ideas or devices associated with each historical phase perhaps accounts for its form and contents, its gaps and contradictions, and the uncertainty of its future. By the time the act was signed into law on October 27, 1972, some of the original concepts for dealing with the coastal troubles had been discarded and others drastically scaled down in face of determined opposition by vested interests, both governmental and non‐governmental. The act was signed unenthusiastically and initially denied fiscal support. The legislative‐political history of the act does not augur well for the future of the nation's coasts.