FOOD

The ocean is one of Earth's most valuable natural resources. It provides food in the form of fish and shellfish—about 200 billion pounds are caught each year.

The oceans have been fished for thousands of years and are an integral part of human society. Fish have been important to the world economy for all of these years, starting with the Viking trade of cod and then continuing with fisheries like those found in Lofoten, Europe, Italy, Portugal, Spain and India. Fisheries of today provide about 16% of the total world’s protein with higher percentages occurring in developing nations. Fisheries are still enormously important to the economy and well-being of communities.

Although a world total of 86 million tons of fish were captured in 2000, China’s fisheries were the most productive, capturing a whopping one third of the total. Other countries producing the most fish were Peru, Japan, the United States, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, India, Thailand, Norway and Iceland- with Peru being the most and Iceland being the least. The number of fish caught varies with the years, but appears to have leveled off at around 88 million tons per year possibly due to overfishing, economics and management practices.

Fish are caught in a variety of ways, including one-man casting nets, huge trawlers, seining, driftnetting, handlining, longlining, gillnetting and diving. The most common species making up the global fisheries are herring, cod, anchovy, flounder, tuna, shrimp, mullet, squid, crab, salmon, lobster, scallops and oyster. Mollusks and crustaceans are also widely sought. The fish that are caught are not always used for food. In fact, about 40% of fish are used for other purposes such as fishmeal to feed fish grown in captivity. For example cod, is used for consumption, but is also frozen for later use. Atlantic herring is used for canning, fishmeal and fish oil. The Atlantic menhaden is used for fishmeal and fish oil and Alaska pollock is consumed, but also used for fish paste to simulate crab. The Pacific cod has recently been used as a substitute for Atlantic cod which has been overfished.

The amount of fish available in the oceans is an ever-changing number due to the effects of both natural causes and human developments. It will be necessary to manage ocean fisheries in the coming years to make sure the number of fish caught never makes it to zero. A lack of fish greatly impacts the economy of communities dependent on the resource, as can be seen in Japan, eastern Canada, New England, Indonesia and Alaska. The anchovy fisheries off the coast of western South America have already collapsed and with numbers dropping violently from 20 million tons to 4 million tons—they may never fully recover. Other collapses include the California sardine industry, the Alaskan king crab industry and the Canadian northern cod industry. In Massachusetts alone, the cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder industries collapsed, causing an economic disaster for the area.

The ocean provides more than just seafood; ingredients from the sea are found in surprising foods such as peanut butter and soymilk.

It is an important source of food.

The ocean is the number one source of protein for more than a billion people. Fish accounts for about 15.7% of the animal protein consumed globally (2).Although, not everything is fish and seafood. Humans have traditionally used algae and sea plants for cooking sushi, seaweed pancit in Philippines, sea grapes, dulse, etc. There is a growing tendency of using algae and sea plants on our daily and start-ups like, “This is seaweed… ” (3) are making sure to introduce it in our supermarkets.

Considering the world population growing by 1.5 million people every week, we are relying on the ocean more and more for survival, and we need from an alternative and nutritious food sources. For those who are not into eating insects, edible seaweed might be a good alternative.

WATER

Note: Due to its salt content the ocean is not a major source of drinking water.

Humans cannot drink saline water, but,saline water can be made into freshwater, for which there are many uses. The process is called “desalination,” and it is being used more and more around the world to provide people with needed freshwater.

Thirsty? How 'bout a cool, refreshing cup of seawater?

No, don't take us literally! Humans cannot drink saline water. But, saline water can be made into freshwater, which is the purpose of this portable, inflatable solar still (it even wraps up into a tiny package). The process is called desalination, and it is being used more and more around the world to provide people with needed freshwater. Most of the United States has, or can gain access to, ample supplies of freshwater for drinking purposes. But, freshwater can be in short supply in many parts of the Nation and world. And, as the population continues to grow, shortages of freshwater will occur more often, if only in certain locations. In some areas, salt water (from the ocean, for instance) is being turned into freshwater for drinking.

The "simple" hurdle that must be overcome to turn seawater into freshwater is to remove the dissolved salt in seawater. That may seem as easy as just boiling some seawater in a pan, capturing the steam and condensing it back into water (distillation). Other methods are available but these current technological processes must be done on a large scale to be useful to large populations, and the current processes are expensive, energy-intensive, and involve large-scale facilities.

The world's oceans, with a total volume of more than 500 million cubic kilometers, hold more than 97 percent of all the water on Earth. However, the 3.5-percent salt content of this water makes it unusable for most human needs.

The extraction of fresh water from ocean water has been carried out for many years, but provides only a very small portion of the water used, and remains quite expensive relative to land-based water resources. Technological advances, especially in reverse osmosis , continue to increase the efficiency of fresh-water extraction. However, geographic limitations and dependency on world energy costs pose major barriers to large-scale extraction.

MINERALS

Salt

Salt, or sodium chloride, occurs in sea water at a concentration of about 3 percent and hence constitutes more than 80 percent of the dissolved chemical elements in sea water. The quantity available in all the oceans is so enormous that it could supply all human needs for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Although salt is extracted directly from the oceans in many countries by evaporating the water and leaving the residual salts, most of the nearly 200 million metric tons of salt produced annually is mined from large beds of salt. These beds, now deeply buried, were left when waters from ancient oceans evaporated in shallow seas or marginal basins, leaving residual thick beds of salt; the beds were subsequently covered and protected from solution and destruction.

Potassium

Like the sodium and chlorine of salt, potassium occurs in vast quantities in sea water, but its average concentration of about 1,300 parts per million (or 0.13 percent) is generally too low to permit direct economic extraction. Potassium salts, however, occur in many thick evaporite sequences along with common salt and is mined from these beds at rates of tens of millions of metric tons per year. The potassium salts were deposited when sea water had been evaporated down to about one-twentieth of its original volume.

Magnesium

Magnesium, dissolved in sea water at a concentration of about 1,000 parts per million, is the only metal directly extracted from sea water. Presently, approximately 60 percent of the magnesium metal and many of the magnesium salts produced in the United States are extracted from sea water electrolytically. The remaining portion of the magnesium metal and salts is extracted from ancient ocean deposits where the salts precipitated during evaporation or formed during diagenesis. The principal minerals mined for this purpose are magnesite (MgCO 3 ) and dolomite (CaMg[CO 3 ] 2 ).

Sand and Gravel

The ocean basins constitute the ultimate depositional site of sediments eroded from the land, and beaches represent the largest residual deposits of sand. Although beaches and near-shore sediments are locally extracted for use in construction, they are generally considered too valuable as recreational areas to permit removal for construction purposes. Nevertheless, older beach sand deposits are abundant on the continents, especially the coastal plains, where they are extensively mined for construction materials, glass manufacture, and preparation of silicon metal. Gravel deposits generally are more heterogeneous but occur in the same manner, and are processed extensively for building
materials.

Limestone and Gypsum

Limestones (rocks composed of calcium carbonate) are forming extensively in the tropical to semitropical oceans of the world today as the result of precipitation by biological organisms ranging from mollusks to corals and plants. There is little exploitation of the modern limestones as they are forming in the oceans. However, the continents and tropical islands contain vast sequences of limestones that are extensively mined; these limestones commonly are interspersed with dolomites that formed through diagenetic alteration of limestone. Much of the limestone is used directly in cut or crushed form, but much is also calcined (cooked) to be converted into cement used for construction purposes. Gypsum (calcium sulfate hydrate) forms during evaporation of sea water and thus may occur with evaporite salts and/or with limestones. The gypsum deposits are mined and generally converted into plaster of paris and used for construction.

Manganese Nodules

The deep ocean floor contains extremely large quantities of nodules ranging from centimeters to decimeters in diameter (that is, from less than an inch to several inches). Although commonly called manganese nodules, they generally contain more iron than manganese, but do constitute the largest known resource of manganese.

Despite the abundance and the wealth of metals contained in manganese nodules (iron, manganese, copper, cobalt, and nickel), no economic way has yet been developed to harvest these resources from the deep ocean floor. Consequently, these rich deposits remain as potential resources for the future. Terrestrial deposits of manganese are still relied on to meet human needs.

Phosphorites

Complex organic and inorganic processes constantly precipitate phosphate-rich crusts and granules in shallow marine environments. These are the analogs (comparative equivalents) of the onshore deposits being mined in several parts of the world, and represent future potential reserves if land-based deposits become exhausted.

Metal Deposits Associated with Volcanism and Seafloor Vents Submarine investigations of oceanic rift zones have revealed that rich deposits of zinc and copper, with associated lead, silver, and gold, are forming at the sites of hot hydrothermal emanations commonly called black smokers. These metal-rich deposits, ranging from chimneyto pancake-like, form where deeply circulating sea water has dissolved metals from the underlying rocks and issue out onto the cold seafloor along major fractures. The deposits forming today are not being mined because of their remote locations, but many analogous ancient deposits are being mined throughout the world.

Placer Gold, Tin, Titanium, and Diamonds

Placer deposits are accumulations of resistant and insoluble minerals that have been eroded from their original locations of formation and deposited along river courses or at the ocean margins. The most important of these deposits contain gold, tin, titanium, and diamonds.

Today, much of the world's tin and many of the gem diamonds are recovered by dredging near-shore ocean sediments for minerals that were carried into the sea by rivers. Gold has been recovered in the past from such deposits, most notably in Nome, Alaska. Large quantities of placer titanium minerals occur in beach and near-shore sediments, but mining today is confined generally to the beaches or onshore deposits because of the higher costs and environmental constraints of marine mining.

ENERGY

Wind Energy

The global wind power market continued to be fairly stable in 2018, with about 51 GW of capacity installed worldwide (including nearly 47 GW onshore and 4.5 GW offshore), down approximately 4% from 2017.

A historical record of 4,331 MW of new offshore wind power was installed across nine markets globally in 2017. This represents an increase of 95% on the 2016 market. Overall, there are now 18,814MW of installed offshore wind capacity in 17 markets around the world.

Hydropower

Water technologies encompass a variety of systems that use ocean or freshwater for electricity or thermal energy. The most familiar water technology is hydropower, in which the force of moving water propels a turbine, which in turn runs a generator to create electricity. Hydropower and other water technologies are renewable because their fuel is naturally replenished through the water cycle; they are clean alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels that cause climate change. Hydropower does not require the purchase of fuels for generation, unlike natural gas, coal and other fuel-burning plants. The only costs are the construction and operation of the generation facilities.

Globally, hydropower accounts for about 15 percent of electric generation. In 2014, U.S. hydropower plants had a capacity of about 101,000 megawatts (MW) and produced 6 percent of the total energy and 48 percent of renewable electricity in the United States. Although most suitable sites for large scale dams have been developed in the United States and globally, there are many opportunities to install hydropower systems at existing dams currently without generation capability, and to use other water energy technologies in rivers, tidal zones and open ocean. According to two 2012 studies by the U.S. Department of Energy, existing dams that are not currently producing power could provide 12,000 MW of additional capacity, and if new installations (including those harnessing waves and tidal currents) are built, hydropower could potentially provide 15 percent of America's electricity by 2030 (vs. 6 percent today).

Hydropower facilities can be installed on rivers, oceans or lakes.

MEDICINE

Many medicinal products come from the ocean, including ingredients that help fight cancer, athritis, Alzheimer's disease, and heart disease.

The Ocean has therapeutic properties.

Did you know that the anti-viral drugs Zovirax and Acyclovir were obtained from nucleosides isolated from Caribbean sponges? Or that Yondelis, developed from small soft-bodied marine animals, was the first drug of marine origin to fight cancer?