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The needs of man are growing incessantly. This results from the demographic growth, roughly 2% yearly, or 10,000 additional humans per hour. Within 50 years, at this rate, there will be at least twice as many people on earth. Another cause lies in the improvement of living standards: more sophisticated food, more comfort, more energy, to name a few. Man will be forced to turn to the sea, perhaps because there is no other solution. The ocean is a repository of most of the raw materials man needs, and perhaps technologists will find in the water domain nuclear energy, living space, and food. Yet, although exploitation of the ocean has barely begun, the spectrum of marine pollution is becoming steadily more real. We must aim not toward a wild rush, but toward a well planned move.
Human and animal needs for fresh water have already become a major concern; further demands are made by agriculture, industry, tourism, and recreation. Within 20 years, the need for fresh water and food will have been doubled. Man cannot afford to ravage the ocean as he did the earth: he must adapt his fishing techniques, his harvesting methods, so that the ecosystem is not endangered. Similarly, the true challenge of the present decade is, for the marine "mining” engineer, to develop exploitation methods and techniques which will not constitute a danger to the marine environment.
An important question raised in official and private quarters alike is "Which catalyst could bring together maritime powers towards a rational management, and an international management, of marine technology in order to extract the hoped for benefits of the oceans?” A first step in the right direction might well be the preparation of an atlas of economic oceanography, illustrating the resources of the ocean, showing pollution sources, and picturing the circulation models of ocean waters. Such an atlas would contribute to protection of the oceanic environment from man’s continuous
depredations. The Soviets, for example, are ready to start a 200-vessel campaign to draw the map of the economic wealth available in the 7 billion square kilometers which constitute their national territorial waters.
Edward Wenck wrote, some time ago, that marine technology should be considered on a worldwide basis and not be limited to the development of exploitation means of ocean organic and mineral products. This global image encompasses wastes disposal, maritime trade, maintenance of peace, scientific research, natural conservation. To this already lengthy list one should add tourism, recreation, climate control, and production of energy. Such an economic atlas is by no means an idealist’s dream: today technologists can determine the geographic distribution of minerals located at depths exceeding 300 meters by using a nuclear probe containing man-made Californium-252 followed by area scanning with a detector. Minerals, indeed, absorb Californium-252, then emit gamma rays. Gold, silver, copper, and manganese were thus detected, and the proponents of this method claim that quantities as minute as 20 grams per ton could thus be located.
Nuclear probe detection of minerals has been the object of a research grant from the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission for tests in Sequin Bay, Washington. This nuclear probe could be instrumental in drawing a map of the ocean bottom using geophysical methods and will facilitate the evaluation of mineral deposits, in various stations, in a matter of minutes.
Obviously, the viewpoints of the technologist and of the champion of conservation are at antipodes. Yet, should we not ask: "Is such opposition permanent?” Is there really no path which may lead to a rational exploitation of the Earth without running the risk of irremediable damage to environment and humanity? The promise that the oceans hold is considerable and its resources might well be inexhaustible, providing we use the sea carefully and wisely. Using the oceans will certainly be a major objective of this century’s end.
Exploitation of the oceans. Attracted by the probable wealth held by the oceans, several countries have set up scientific, technical, and industrial organizations to first explore, then exploit the marine resources. Nineteen nations have put more than 500 scientific vessels into service, each searching for a share of the wealth. Computer studies concluded that an investment in exploitation of ocean resources will return in 20 years more than three times the same sum placed at 10% yearly interest. These studies considered the ocean as a source of food, an area of fishing, of aquaculture, mariculture, ostreiculture, conchyculture; yet, the success of such exploitation is challenged by looming pollution. The studies also considered the ocean as a source of raw materials, and foresaw exploration, recon
naissance, pre-exploitation planning, and extraction of petroleum, gas, and ores.
The gigantic thermo-dynamic engine constituted by the ocean-atmosphere complex is a primordial study theme: ocean action upon meteorological conditions. The theme "ocean, source of recreation and health” has gained a considerable momentum as humanity becomes steadily more concentrated in asphalted urban zones where green spots and sky glimpses are increasingly rare. Still another theme, of current interest, is to find ways of transforming products extracted from the ocean into consumer goods, and to ensure their marketing. Oceanography is important to the consumer because of its "products”, and to the producers because of its technical needs. "Oceanography is one of the most promising markets of the current decade,” stated J. Jamison Moore. "It offers a potential that has unleashed the imagination and the enthusiasm of industrial planners.”
If, on the one hand, opportunities have been pictured as an exceptional cornucopia, we cannot afford to lose sight of the need to acquire first a thorough understanding of the environment. Today, a sluggish market supports only a limited effort, except in petroleum and gas exploitation. A sober assessment of priorities is imperative; expansion of existing markets must be kept
Towards a Rational Use of the Oceans 29
apart from the creation of new industries; the ocean must be considered as a milieu subject to technological and ecological limitations; finally, reaping of the ocean’s resources will be a function of an honest profit for the investor and of the trends in national and international economies.
In 1968, coastal locations accounted for 84% of all marine exploitation activities, 14% were off-shore endeavors, and only 2% of the operations were deep water projects. The trend is rapidly changing and agreements signed in Geneva, in 1958, which granted sovereign rights to riparian nations, up to a depth of 200 meters, are well outdated since the ocean is readily exploitable beyond the 200-meter depth limit. With the new and increased demands of an exploding population, the economy of the ocean is a matter for immediate attention.
Water. One of the first resources of the ocean is water itself, whether it is used to extract salts, construct electrical power plants, or to quench the thirst of man and parched lands.
The shortage of fresh water poses a pressing problem: water levels are dropping on the continent; occasionally wells are invaded by brackish waters; artesian wells run dry; deeper and deeper drilled wells are needed. Kings County, outside New York City, woke up one morning to find its wells put out of use by seepage of the Long Island Sound waters—this was a half a century ago. Today, New York City and the surrounding communities import their drinking water from the Catskill Mountains, hundreds of kilometers away. Tapping the ocean for fresh water, an unthinkable luxury not so long ago, is now a necessity. Engineers have examined the possibility of towing icebergs from Antarctica to Australia and to the west coast of the United States. An iceberg with dimensions of 1,000 by 1,000 by 250 meters represents 250 million cubic meters and could be towed in 300 days near the Ato- coma desert in Chile. It would lose 86% of its water mass but would still represent 35 million cubic meters of fresh water worth 2.7 million dollars. The trip would have cost 1.3 million dollars and thus, theoretically, the operation would be profitable.
Today, there are numerous desalting plants throughout the world providing fresh water for man, cattle, and irrigation purposes. Salt removal is done through a variety of processes such as distillation, the membrane process, congealing, solar distillation, chemical processes, physical and electrical methods, and the flash distillation process used in the San Diego, California, plant. This was the first plant in the United States to use the multiple flash process and is one of the world’s largest. The U. S. Office of Saline Water disclosed, in
1968, that no less than 627 plants were then in use, being built, or on order, with a production capacity of 800,000 cubic meters per day. In many cases the energy needed to run the plants is provided by petroleum or gas, an ideal energy source in the Middle East. Kuwait has the lead in fresh water production with
100,0 cubic meters per day and is building two more plants which together will provide an additional 130,500 cubic meters of fresh water daily.
The major problem, of course, is the cost of the produced fresh water. Since fuel is no problem in Kuwait, water can be produced at a cost of 12 cents per cubic meter; otherwise, it would cost about 30 cents.
The price can probably be cut by planning larger plants, treating at least 100,000 cubic meters per day, and establishing agricultural-industrial complexes which will recuperate the waste products. If plans to build nuclear powered plants go through, then giant desalting factories will further reduce production costs by furnishing between 300,000 and 500,000 cubic meters per day.
Therapeutic uses. Is salt water beneficial to health? Agreement was reached long ago on the favorable effects of marine heliotherapy and of the curative properties of the combination air-sea-sun. However, there is also a marine thermal medicine, called thalassotherapy, which has achieved appreciable results in the treatment of several illnesses, among them rheumatism, healing of bone fractures, and rhinitis. Drugs from the sea constitute a segment of the pharmacopoeia. A symposium was organized, in 1970, dealing exclusively with the ocean as a source of useful drugs. Many old medical treatments are based upon the use of marine plants. Thalassotherapy stations are not of recent vintage; there are several such cure centers in France (Roscoff, Biarritz, Quiberon), in Germany, and elsewhere (e.g., Ostend, Belgium).
Under given conditions, sea water can be administered to patients orally, or by intravenous injections. Hot and cold baths, often accompanied by high pressure water streams, have been successfully used to combat obesity, nevritis and polynevritis, lumbago, cellulitis, and nasal conditions. Thousands of children were saved in pre-World War I days by sea water injections in specialized clinics at Paris, Brest, Reims, and Nancy, in France. Nasal absorption of sea water has proven beneficial in curing sinusitis. Yet, the medical use of sea water faded away after the end of World War I. Just as an interest is developing in the Western world for the use of needles in medicine, Chinese acupuncture, there is now a renewal of interest in thalassotherapy.
Energy. If there is a "water crisis”, there is also an "energy crisis.” Perhaps, with the help of the ocean, black-outs of the type experienced in New York and London can be avoided. Fossil energy production needed per-person in 1800 was 300 calories; by 1970, the requirements had reached 22,300 calories. The world is facing an electrical energy crisis, stated recently Nobel Prize winner Glenn T. Seaborg, former Chairman of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. Seaborg felt that the additional source of production should be the atom. Conservationists contend that the atom is a source of thermal pollution whose effects are not known. Another alternative is perhaps the harnessing
of the energies of the oceans, energy which is dissipated by tides, waves, and currents.
The Ancient Greeks had already attempted to take advantage of the Euripus tides, a channel separating Euboea and Boeotia. Near Chalcis, water mills put the energy of currents to use, while near Agostoli, on the isle of Cephalonia, energy to run mills was obtained from the tides. Tide mills were in use in England and Wales as early as the year 1000; even in the United States, in New England, and on Long Island, tide- powered mills were numerous. A major treatise on the subject of using the force of the tides was published in France in the late 18th century by Bernard Forest
uc Dciiuur. out plans on a larger scaic were piacea on the drawing boards after World War I. Possibilities of using the tides to produce energy have been examined in England, Wales, France, Australia, Argentina, the United States, and elsewhere. Under President Franklin Roosevelt, work was actually started on a tidal power plant near Passamaquoddy, Maine, in 1935, but it halted when Congress failed to appropriate funds. Under President John Kennedy, a similar plan was revived and approved, but Congress failed again to appropriate funds.
Towards a Rational Use of the Oceans 31
Tidal energy is derived from the force inherent in the earth’s rotation. Only France and the U.S.S.R. have actually built tidal power plants: the first in the estuary of the Ranee River, near St. Malo on the coast of Brittany, and the others on Kisgalobskaia Bay near the White Sea.
The price tag of such plants has been the main deterrent to their construction; it was the motivating factor in deciding not to construct the Severn River plant in Great Britain; and, yet, it is freely admitted today that, had the Severn plant been built, when first considered in 1933 or next in 1945, the operation would have paid off handsomely within 10 years. In Australia, the possibilities defy the imagination and a plant built on the Kimberley coast in western Australia would provide over 300,000 kw, or about 50 times the present production of electricity of Australia. A negative decision was taken because energy cannot be stored and there is not yet a sufficient market in Southeast Asia to use that much power. Meanwhile, the French plant has proved to be a boost to the development of Brittany and a worthwhile addition to the French national grid at peak demand times.
There are other sources of energy provided by the ocean besides that of the tides. Among these are thermal and electromagnetic energy, waves, and marine currents. Electromagnetic energy seems rather limited when compared to the total energy available. Thermal energy results from temperature differences between two water supplies of unlimited discharge. Warm surface waters, in equatorial regions and in the tropics, and deep cold waters flowing from the polar regions come into contact in these areas. An experimental plant was built in Abidjan, Republic of Ivory Coast, but was abandoned after a short period of time. Such plants, whose most favored locations are upwelling zones, near coasts, in tropical areas exposed to winds of constant direction, nevertheless hold great promise since the production of electricity can be coupled with fresh water production, air conditioning, and extraction of sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, chlorine, and hydrochloric acid. Recently, the physicist Barjot discussed the possibility of building thalassothermal plants in polar areas where the difference of temperature between the ocean water and the overlying air layers reaches some 50°C. Neither the tidal power plants nor the ocean thermal plants interferes with the environment.
No efforts have been made to harness the energy of marine currents, though the possibility was examined. In the last few years there has been a revival of interest for the harnessing of wave energy. A Boston firm has proposed a model plant; other projects have been under consideration in Chicago, on the west coast, in Biarritz, and in Japan. A Columbia University
team has conducted a project to use thermal energy in the Virgin Islands and has coupled the plant with a high productivity mariculture effort. While production was very successful, using the warm waters, ecologists object strenuously, warning of environmental destruction, multiplication of algae, invasion of starfish, and possible ruin of the coral reefs.
Biological resources. Putting water itself and the production of energy aside, ocean resources can be classified into three categories: biological, chemical, and geological resources. The notion of resource can of course be extended to include the ocean bottom and its edges, offering sites for cables, pipelines, gasoducts, harbors and resorts, and the water itself as the geographical locale of maritime routes. During the last Oceanographic Congress held in Moscow in 1966, some oceanographers insisted on the inexhaustible quality of ocean bio-resources, insisting even that the then-current catch of 60 to 80 million tons of animal products, could be increased to 200 millions. Yet, it appears that the productivity of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans has reached its peak. Perhaps there is a possibility of increasing the catch in the Indian Ocean. But, if the ocean is not the panacea that alone can solve the hunger problem in the world, it can resolve, in part, the protein deficiency of some diets and certainly can provide more than the present 1% which it now contributes to worldwide nutrition. To increase ocean products consumption, education concerning religious tabus and diet are necessary.
The use of the biological resources of the ocean is a function of its productivity capacity, of its accessibility (because refrigeration is far from widespread), and of the cultural heritage. The plant life of the sea surpasses that of the land, indeed, but the algae are the principal constituent. It is thus probably toward the source of proteins rather than toward the vegetal matter that our attention should be turned. Infant deaths are due, in major percentages, to the lack of proteins in their diets, even though 3.5 to 7 kilograms of proteins per year would suffice. An investment of about $3.00 per year would provide a sufficient quantity of proteins per child, in the shape of food protein concentrate (FPC). A bit less than half the total catch of American fishermen is used to make fodder for cattle and developing countries can their sea food products in order to sell them as pet food in foreign countries— an incredible waste as far as human consumption is concerned since one ton of fish represents 115 kilograms of protein.
Aquaculture and Aquafarming. Aquaculture is the husbandry of marine species in closed basins and maricul-
ture is the same activity in open waters. With improved technology, both offer important new horizons, and the Japanese are leading the way. Three years ago, anchovies were successfully raised in basins at La Jolla, California; more recently, the Fisheries Ministry of the Republic of the Ivory Coast put special basins into use for the production of shrimps (Penaeus ducrarum), near Abidjan, and over 500,000 shrimps are being fattened in special lagoons. In the Morbihan region of France, similar efforts with prawns have been successful, and the production of lobsters and crayfish is expanding; aquaculture has been improved in Brittany and Aquitaine. Commercial production of shrimps in Japan has increased by 10% the supply which could not meet the demand. Encouraging results have been obtained with ambulatory basins for tuna, but in this instance efforts will be slowed down until an international agreement is reached guaranteeing to the producer the harvest of his "crop.”
32 U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1974
A major consideration in aquaculture and aquafarming is that the species which are being grown find in their new environment sufficient food and reproduction conditions which are favorable, while not becoming
competitive with the indigenous species and not perturbing the alimentary equilibrium upon which they depend. Encouraging results were registered, near Angleton in Texas, where shrimps were raised in closed-off basins and fed a commercially produced diet. Near Manchester, in the State of Washington, Coho and Chinook salmon were raised in Puget Sound, starting from free males’ sperm. Under the Sea Grant program, high sea mariculture experiments are conducted off the coast of Hawaii.
Since man has practically abandoned hunting in most regions of the world as a source of nutrition, in favor of animal husbandry, and gathering in favor of agriculture, would it not be possible to consider a similar trend in the ocean environment? Plankton yields
4,0 tons of vegetal matter for each 2.5 square kilometers, while such a surface yields only 600 tons on land. Naturally, since algae are the main plant life, the danger of pollution must be kept in mind and rivers and seas must be stocked, acclimating species if necessary, in order to avoid over-fertilization which may lead to eutrophication.
Denmark’s Zealanders have produced commercially oysters and mussels for centuries. Today they place the young on rafters putting them out of reach of their carnivorous enemies and increasing fourfold their rate of growth by placing the mussel banks in the path of faster currents. Phytoplankton production can be intensified through a strictly supervised control, by mixing waters and even, perhaps, by using the heated waters poured out by nuclear plants. Nevertheless, the pollution factor remains staggering; without it, oyster production in the United States would easily reach 800 million tons. Two years ago, 90% of the oysters died in the Arcachon Bay, a major production center on the Atlantic Coast of France. The disappearance of shrimps and eels from the Belgian North Sea Coast, and the decline in the herring population, are definitely a consequence of the ecosystem’s disruption.
According to Soviet scientists, the spawn of the sea urchin has wonderful healing properties and they believe that it can compete with ginseng, occasionally called "root of life.” Each gram of the spawn contains as much as 35 milligrams of fat and 20 milligrams of protein, as well as an abundance of useful microorganisms. The waters washing Kunashir and Shikotan islands, in the Kuriles, are the only place in the world, it is believed, where sea urchins are available on a commercial scale. They are caught at a depth of 80 to 110 meters by special dredges installed on fishing vessels. The spawn is extracted from the sea urchins, canned at the Yuzhno-Kurilsk fish processing plant, and sent to medical institutions both within the U.S.S.R. and abroad. Aquaculture and aquafarming are
Towards a Rational Use of the Oceans 33
not a new activity in the U.S.S.R.; they have even recently put into service a fish incubator; at the fish hatchery near Volgograd, white salmon are artificially bred. The male and female fish are kept in special pools of cold water for eight months. The spawn is incubated and the fry kept in covered pools with circulating cold water and then placed in special ponds. When the fry are large and strong enough, they are released into the Volga River and the Caspian Sea. The complete cycle takes a year. Nevertheless, the results are impaired by the pollution plaguing river and sea, and by existing hydroelectric dams.
Six years ago, Professor Shelbourne reported raising
300,0 plaice in Ardere Loch (Scotland). He had created in the loch conditions close to those of the ocean and showed that the death of the fry, under natural conditions, is almost exclusively caused by the voracity of marine flesh eaters. Marine husbandry could thus be a remedy to this situation.
Fish husbandry could even, it appears, help man combat pollution. In the last five years Asiatic Amurs have been raised in Arkansas and their incredible voracity has cleaned up several of the state’s rivers.
Hunting. Environment and conservation conscious groups have been successful in putting some countries out of the whaling business and prohibiting the import of products of cetacean origin by the United States. Fur coats are suffering from a wave of reprobation. Seal and sea lion hunting are in great popular disfavor. Some voices even object to the training of porpoises for military aims. Efforts are made to avoid the killing of dolphins caught in the tuna fish nets. The hunting of sea mammals appears to be declining, since only Australia, Japan, and the U.S.S.R. continue large scale operations. Instead, the cooperation of some of these mammals is sought to help man retrieve objects lost at sea and to study sound transmission in the oceanic milieu.
Fishing. Fishing remains, even in these days of high technology, an enterprise based on nets, hooks, human labor, and a good deal of luck, yet the use of biomarine resources is still a sociological, cultural, and political matter. Areas which are rich in fish products are jealously protected by the riparian states. Peru strives to increase its anchovies catch from one-half to ten billion tons; the Soviet Union has pressed into service factory ships which accompany the fishermen’s craft. Iceland has extended its territorial limits to keep other nations from exhausting the waters surrounding the island. The United States, once the second most important fishing nation, has dropped to sixth place, behind Peru, Japan, China, the U.S.S.R., and Norway. The fishing industry
of the Soviet Union has made amazing progress in the last years. If whaling is declining, its flotillas of over 100 fishing vessels are exceedingly efficient; it has built new fishing harbors, new factory ships, new spotting units, new harbor-to-fleet commuting vessels, and has provided developing nations with ultra-modern trawlers. The Soviets consider fishing as a very important source of hard currency and, for that reason, they reduced the production of salted, smoked and dried fish, increasing sales of fresh, frozen, and canned products. So far, however, they have not signed conservation agreements.
Soviet techniques have made considerable progress: in the Caspian Sea, fishermen use spotlights to find the fish, then use suction pumps to bring them aboard, while the sonar is used in locating currents, upwellings, schools, and in checking weather conditions. One submersible is used exclusively for fisheries research. Both Japan and France have improved their technological equipment; France has put to sea large vessels for tuna fishing; these vessels carry a helicopter whose task it is to spot schools of fish and to direct the fishing operations.
There is no doubt that the biological resources of the ocean constitute a precious contribution to the feeding of a world in which hunger is an endemic condition for large segments of humanity; it is equally true that more nations should turn to the sea in their efforts to solve the problem, but it is of paramount importance that no nation overlook the threat of overfishing which would rob the ocean of its regenerative capability. A primordial step is to acquire a better knowledge of the capital which the wealth of the seas represents, so that only a reasonable interest be collected.
Raw materials. Marine resources, we pointed out, are either chemical, geological or biological. Geological resources can be either authigenic, detrital, or organic. They are very numerous although specialists are not sure whether they are, under present conditions, profitably exploitable.
Phosphorite contains usually 30% of economically worthwhile material (P205) and is generally found where other materials brought from land are not accumulated. Exploitable areas include the Pacific coasts of both California and northwest Mexico, Peru, the northwest and the south of Africa, and probably the northwest of Australia as well. The Indian geological survey claims to have found deposits near the Andaman islands. The composition of phosphorite is sand, gravel, calcareous organic remains, and fossil phosphorite. Appreciated as fertilizer, phosphorite is mined, on land, in coastal North Africa and in Florida. One ton is
worth $13, and costs more than a ton of marine phosphorite at $6.
It is already more than a hundred years since the Challenger reported the presence on the ocean bottom of nodules containing manganese; in 1968, an easily exploitable deposit was located under the waters of Lake Michigan, spreading over 500 square kilometers and at depths varying from 30 to 60 meters. The yield was assessed at 40,000 to 60,000 tons per-square-kilometer. These nodules are actually made up of several metals and nonmetals. A partial list, in order of decreasing importance, includes manganese, iron, aluminum; nickel, copper, and cobalt. The American concern Teneco announced in 1969 its plans to gather these nodules; the operation was actually to be carried out by its subsidiary, Deep Sea Ventures, which had gathered 40 tons of nodules off the Florida and Carolina coasts. In 1970, an area covering 390 square kilometers, in waters of medium depth, was located near Hawaii; heaviest concentrations were found near the north coast of Lihue and south of Kapaa. A French expedition picked nodules off Tuamotu (Tahiti) from depths varying between 1,000 and 1,600 meters: most samples were small but one specimen weighed 128 kilograms. A year ago, a team of oceanographers from Columbia University (New York) made a map of the manganese nodule sites which might well prove to be a valuable sheet of the economic atlas of the ocean we spoke about at the beginning of this paper.
Ferrous-manganetic concretions have been sited in the Sea of Japan and chromite could be exploited along the Sakhalin coast. According to John Mero, the Pacific Ocean alone has reserves of 1012 tons of manganese and a single gathering operation could provide up to 50% of the world’s production of cobalt. P. L. Bezrukov of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences Oceanology Institute describes as follows the 1969 to 1970 Vitiaz campaign: "Nodules of manganese are found at depths of 4 to 6 kilometers at rather large distance from continental masses in regions of accidented relief and slow sedimentation. The sediments are red clays and diato- meceous or radiolarae oozes. At lesser depths, 1 to 2 kilometers, nodules rest upon igneous or carbonaceous rocks and upon the ocean bottom. The highest density is 50 to 75 kg/m2 in the central Pacific where phos- phatic rocks are abundant on the slopes of submarine mountain chains which stretch westwards from Hawaii.” These observations conform to the photographic reconnaissance made by American scientists. If the Soviets are right, then reserves of over 100 billion tons of cobalt, manganese, and nickel rest on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. If all this data is correct, then less than 1% of ocean bottom reserves would suffice to satisfy current needs in manganese, nickel, copper
and cobalt for 50 years. According to Brooks, the price of manganese production could drop by 45%, that of nickel by 7%, and that of cobalt by 30%. His views are challenged by Sorensen and Mead who see only reductions of 3% and 4% for manganese and nickel, respectively, but still 27% for cobalt.
According to D. S. Cronan of the University of Ottawa, manganese at depths exceeding 3,300 meters is mostly todokorite, while at lesser depths it is manganese dioxide. Todokorite concentrates nickel and copper which replace the bivalent dioxide which concentrates, instead, cobalt and lead; todokorite is more common in an oxidation milieu.
Though some scientists doubt the development of a large ocean mining industry, ocean mining is already a reality. Sands and gravels are extracted from the ocean. Some, containing organic remains, have been used as building stone: San Marcos Castle, in St. Augustine, is built from coquina. Sands and gravels are used for artificial beach building, land fill, cement production and in the making of prestressed concrete. They are inexpensive and easily transported.
Ocean Cay is an artificial island built in the Bahamas Archipelago using dredged material. Aragonite is sucked up and treated on this island; production reached two million tons during 1971 and reserves are estimated at 575 million tons. Near Muiden, in The Netherlands, sand is dredged from a depth of 75 meters under the surface of the former Zuiderzee. Off the British Isles, more than 50 dredges exploit sand and gravel deposits. Recently, high quality calcareous sands have been located near the Laccadive Islands. These mining operations might prove dangerous if carried out too close to the coasts as the Lebanese and the Israelis found out: beaches can be ruined. Yet, the need for marine sands and gravels will increase: some countries fail to find sufficient quantities on land and the French foresee that within a decade the Channel will be tapped for the materials needed by Paris, Normandy, and the north of France.
Some sands contain gold; gravels contain diamonds and often where gold is found, there is also platinum. Shell Oil is prospecting off Alaska. Goodnews Bay has provided, since 1935, close to 90% of the platinum needed by the United States. Extraction is presently carried out on Australian and South African beaches; here diamonds have been mined from the sea since 1962, all along the coast from the Orange River mouth to Deay Point. Kimberlite is transported by the river and deposited along the littoral by marine action. The yield is not negligible: in 1964, one company extracted 16,118 carats from a single marine deposit. In Alaska, Inlet Oil exploits petroleum deposits, but also discovered gold deposits in the channel off Bluff and con-
Towards a Rational Use of the Oceans 35
tinues its search in Goodnews Bay for gold, platinum, mercury, and chrome, and in the southeast for gold, silver, copper, zinc and uranium. Beyond the Burdekin River (Queensland), Australians found gold deposits whose worth is estimated at $100 million.
Off the southeast coast of Greenland, Danish enterprises are prospecting for chromite, rutile, and platinum. Near southeast Alaska, 1,000 tons of barite are mined per day. Heavy minerals have concentrated on the continental platform at depths averaging 200 to 300 meters and ilmenite and rutile are currently mined off the Australian coasts where 95% of the world’s reserves of rutile are located (east coast). Yearly,
450,0 tons of ilmenite are mined off the Australian west coast. Both ilmenite and rutile are often associated with zirconium and with thorium-containing monazite. Zircon and monazite are extracted simultaneously with titanium in Florida, Ceylon, and Australia. Though deposits of monazite have been located off India and Alaska, Australia remains the leader with 30% of the world’s production. Near Liepaja, in the Baltic Sea, uranium has been mined since 1972; the Soviets are looking for deposits of titanium, ilmenite, and rutile in the same area. Already, magnetite and titanium placers have been detected in the sands of the northwest coast of the Black Sea; similar deposits were found near Batumi and in the Sea of Azow. These placers also contain chromite—already mined off the Oregon coast—magnetite, cassiterite, and aragonite. Magnetite was exploited, until very recently, by the Finns, and the Japanese still extract 40,000 tons per year south of Kyushu Island.
Construction is under way in the Maritime Territory district of the U.S.S.R. of a metallurgical complex which will process manganese, cobalt, nickel, and copper-containing materials of marine origin. Among others, the plants will treat magnetite- and titomag- netite-rich placers mined from the Baltic and Black seas. Other such deposits have been located in the Sea of Azow and near the Kurile Islands. Still among the Soviet plans are recovery of tin from the Laptev Sea and the east Siberian coasts, and of amethyst along the southern littoral of the White Sea. Cassiterite, a tin ore, has been mined from the ocean for some time: in the State of Selangor (Malaysia) tin is mined from 50 meter depths. The 65 th anniversary of tin mining near Tongkah (Thailand) was celebrated in 1972. Five years ago, new deposits of cassiterite were spotted in the Andaman Sea near Takuapa, and exploitation started in 1968. In Indonesia, eluvions and alluvions containing tin ore are dredged from the ocean bottom, close to the isles of Singkep, Banka, and Billiton. In 1971, an American concern tested a hydraulic mining system which proved functional at depths down to
1,0 meters. The largest tin ore dredge was built recently by the Japanese: they scrape the ocean bottom then suck up the material made up of sands and muds. Once aboard the ship, the ore is automatically separated from the bulk of the material which is then returned to the ocean. Japanese experiments are under way with a continuous belt dredge which could perhaps work at depths of up to 4,000 meters.
The Soviets reported large tin reserves in the Vankina Guba (Yakutia), near Selyakhskaya, stretching from Cape Svyatoi Nos, to the Strait of Dmitri Laptev, south of Bolshoi Lyakhov Island, and in the harbors of Khuntazeyev and Siahu, and also in the Japan Sea. They claim to be ready to extract diamonds, platinum, and especially gold near Kalyma (Lena River), Nakhodka (Okhotsk Sea) and along the northern and southern coasts of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Specially equipped ore processing ships are being built. They will also serve for prospecting and be equipped with a probe with a radio-isotope sensor which, when put to sea, will reveal on a shipboard indicator the presence of lead, gold, and manganese through gamma ray absorption.
In the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cornwall, in St. Ives Bay, recovery of tin-containing sands has started and important deposits have been located off Brest, on the coast of Brittany. In closing this impressive, yet far from complete, survey, let us mention copper and zinc mining operations in Maine, potash in Great Britain, and barite in Alaska. Here, natural forces have not barred operations even though tides reach seven meters, winds reach speeds of 170 km/hour and temperatures fall below — 15°C.
Muds. As a result of erosion, and from alluvial accumulations, muds are deposited at the sea bottom at lesser depths than on the continental platform. They can be divided into two types: calcareous muds and red muds. The first type originates from shell deposits and can be used in the production of whitewash, as fertilizer, or for its content of calcium, potassium or barite. Such muds cover about 35% of the ocean bottom at depths ranging from 700 to 6,000 meters with layers whose thickness is estimated at 400 meters on the average. This calcareous cover would thus spread over 128 million square kilometers and accumulate at the rate of one billion tons per year, or eight times the quantity yielded by contemporary land operations.
The red muds are agillaceous and constitute a source of aluminum, iron, copper, nickel, cobalt, and vanadium. According to some oceanographers, they cover one-half of the floor of the Pacific Ocean and one- fourth of the Atlantic Ocean bottom at an average depth of 3,000 meters.
36 U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1974
Dissolved, substances. Since time immemorial, man has extracted from sea water common salt or sodium chloride; it still represents some 30% of the world production today. Its use is both domestic and industrial. Bromine and magnesium compounds are simultaneously extracted: 70% of the total production of bromine and 60% of the magnesium used are of marine origin. Dow, Kaiser, and Merck extract magnesium in Texas, and Dow alone provides, from marine origin, 75% of the U. S. needs in bromine. Near Los Angeles, iodine is extracted from the petroleum fields’ brackish solutions.
A few years ago, hot brines were discovered in the Red Sea. The estimated value of the mineral materials contained in these brines is estimated at more than 1.5 million dollars. Layers, occurring at depths of more than 2,100 meters, are sometimes 200 meters thick and contain, besides precious metals, zinc, lead, copper, and cobalt. Joseph Lassiter, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote that in the Atlantic Deep II of the Red Sea, there are reserves, in the upper 11 meters layer, worth $2.3 billion. Such wealth is tempting but, so far, no extraction method has been devised. The Hughes Tool Company and Deep Sea Ventures are conducting research to develop an appropriate system.
Sea water composition is well known and analyses have put in evidence quantities of dissolved copper, cobalt, zinc, gold, uranium, and deuterium. Concentrations, however, are small, yet, these elements could perhaps be recovered as a side operation of desalinisa- tion plants.
Indirect exploitation. Some activities are not sensu stricto ocean mining, but they are closely linked with the ocean domain, albeit because of the technological problems involved or the location of the zones of extraction. The Japanese extract coal in mines which stretch under the sea. African concerns such as De Beers, in the Republic of South Africa, gather diamonds off the coast of the Southwest Africa Territory. It is only in the last 25 years that petroleum companies have been drilling through the ocean floor, first at modest depths, then at ever increasing depths, to reach the petroleum reserves stored under the ocean. Progress in petroleum extraction in the ocean has raised questions of international law which have not yet been answered.
Even before the Christian era, mines were under exploitation by Greeks beneath the sea at Laurium. Since then, coal, limestone, iron ore, tin, copper, and nickel have been extracted near the British Isles, Ireland, the Atlantic coast of France; near Greece, Turkey and Spain in the Mediterranean; Finland in the Baltic Sea; Japan and China in Asia; and on the American west coast off Alaska, Canada, the United States, and Chile.
Among the organic geological resources are shells, petroleum, and natural gas. We mentioned shells earlier; as for gas and petroleum, they are being depleted at a faster rate than extraction progresses. Not so long ago, wells dug at depths of 25 meters were considered quite an achievement; today depths of 250 meters are not unusual and current prospecting is considering deposits more than 400 meters under the water surface. Petroleum demand doubles approximately every ten years, a situation which has triggered worldwide prospecting. Some salt domes come close to the ocean surface and through dissolving of the halite, bacteria can bring about sulfate reduction and transform nonsoluble matter into sulfur. Contemporary sulfur production, from the sea, accounts for more than 10% of the total sulfur production in the United States, or about 60,000 tons in 1965.
Coal, like gas and petroleum, is not extracted from the ocean but rather from under the ocean; such coal mines are operated in China, Japan, Turkey, Great Britain, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and in Chile. Some two million tons were extracted in 1965. While petroleum and gas production is progressing at an accelerating pace in the North Sea, important reserves of methane have been discovered and are also being tapped. A listing of indirect exploitation of the ocean should include such products as corals, used to manufacture jewelry (Bahamas), amber (Baltic), and limestones, used for building and cement manufacture.
Hydrocarbons, however, remain the most abundant mineral resource extracted from the oceans today. New sites are continuously discovered throughout the world. One of the richest fields underlies the North Sea. Some finds are spectacular because of their reserves, others because of the technological difficulties in tapping them. In 1972, one find was sited 135 miles off Aberdeen (Scotland) with an estimated daily production of
4,0 barrels of petroleum and 60,000 cubic meters of natural gas. The North Sea "Brent concession” is about 100 miles north of the Shetland Islands, at 91 °N. latitude, at a depth of 150 meters, in an area where winds reach speeds of 160 km/hour and waves are frequently 30 meters high! The Soviets have found considerable gas and petroleum reserves east of the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea, along the Romanian Do- brudja littoral and on the submarine plateau stretching from Varna (Bulgaria) to the Bosporus. Monthly petroleum industry periodicals list new sites, new areas under exploration, new concessions being granted. But this flurry of economic exploitation of the oceans is not without dangers. Petroleum companies and shipping companies are severely taken to task by environment-conscious groups. Collisions of giant tankers, wells out of control, bursting of a layer, or fires on
drilling platforms, all contribute to disasters known as the black tide, with its ensuing pollution of water and air, destruction of aquatic life, and spoiling of ocean beaches. Though cases brought to court are dealt with severely, unbridled commercial efforts continue; the frenzy is such that there are not sufficient drills to satisfy the demand, especially those for great depths. In 1971, one company brought a giant drill back from Australia to the North Sea at a cost of two million dollars, and found the investment profitable.
the total world production of liquid hydrocarbons in 1971. Within 20 years, the number of drilling platforms grew from none to 360. Yet, some believe that these quantities will not satisfy the demand.
From a technological viewpoint, oil drilling operations still follow the traditional pattern involving a derrick and a drilling platform, some of which are sufficiently large to accommodate a heliport. Humble Oil is pursuing research to refine a remote flow control system; diving bells would be used to periodically inspect installations, while the oil itself would be stored
As of 1969, one fifth of the world’s petroleum production was of submarine origin and close to 400 million tons of gas and oil had already been extracted from the ocean milieu. It is foreseen that by 1980, or 1985, wells will be drilled at depths of 2,000 meters. Considering that, in 1965, 15% of the world production of liquid hydrocarbons came from the ocean, in addition to 6% of the gaseous hydrocarbons, the increase is about 5% per year. It is foreseen that by 1980, 30% will come from the ocean, and by 1990 more than tsvo billion tons will be extracted, which represented
38 U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1974
in pre-stressed concrete tanks resting upon the ocean bottom. Experiments with such storage facilities were quite satisfactory when conducted in the Red Sea.
The demand for oil, estimated at 8,000 million tons by 1980, and the need to spread the geographical sites of operations so as not to be at the mercy of political crises, are sufficient motivation to drill at ever greater depths even though the cost of installations doubles each time depth increases by 600 meters. Since 1970, 75 countries have engaged in geological and geophysical exploration along their coastlines and 42 have drilled in the sea.
The ocean as real estate. Oceanic bottoms represent a very important piece of real estate today. For more than a hundred years telephone and telegraph cables have rested on its floor; the last such cable linked Japan and Hawaii in 1964. More numerous, and covering shorter distances, are the pipelines and gaslines. Underwater tourism, once a science fiction dream, was a highly popular attraction during a world exhibit in Geneva, when Piccard used his mesoscaphe to take tourists on an underwater ride in Lake Geneva. In Florida and the Virgin Islands, the U. S. National Park Service created, several years ago, the two first underwater national parks, providing scuba divers with an opportunity to observe, along marked paths, aquatic flora and fauna in an undisturbed environment; popular response was such that a third such park was inaugurated in Hawaii in 1970.
The futuristic views of Athelstan Spilhaus, former dean of the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota, were taken tongue in cheek a decade ago. Even though underwater cities and resorts have not left the drawing boards, the Japanese, surrounded by an incredibly polluted environment, plan to build housing complexes beneath the waters of the Sea of Japan; if construction has been delayed, it is not because of technological handicaps, but rather because authorities want to ascertain that fishing, and the coastal environment, will not suffer ill effects from such a project.
Since the end of World War I, tourism has become accessible to the popular masses and has given rise to an ever expanding industry; in some countries the tourism industry represents the major part of the national income. Water tourism attracts thousands of men, women, and children, and ocean shore recreation is perhaps the leader in this type of activity, including fishing, nautical sports, swimming, and just plain beach relaxation. Unfortunately, total anarchy has characterized the development of shore resorts. Beach erosion, dune bulldozing, lack of sanitary facilities, damages caused by the tourists themselves, and commercial de
velopments, have wrought havoc with coastal areas, brought about the virtual disappearance of entire stretches of beach, led to the toppling of valuable properties and buildings. Unless we have given up hope of salvaging the tourist resources constituted by the ocean, drastic measures must be taken immediately. The United States has already passed strict legislation to protect the shore areas, but only a few other Western countries have managed to timidly "protect” a few natural sites.
The ocean offers travel lanes in depth and in surface, unhampered so far, and its shores provide choice locations for the establishment of harbors. The intensity of today’s traffic on some routes and towards specific ports and the ever increasing tonnage of ships have caused traffic jams, incidents, and multiply accidents which often result in the spilling of dangerous, dirtying, and noxious substances. It is high time that some order be brought to the maritime lanes, to safety, to environmental protection and that laws be updated.
Who owns the ocean? Several proposals dealing with the ownership of the ocean, beyond territorial waters, as well as with the extent of territorial waters, have been placed before the United Nations organization. Private firms are hesitant to invest large sums required by prospecting and exploiting of ocean areas, as long as ocean ownership is not clearly defined. They can hardly be blamed, since several have been hit hard in their pocketbook by sudden nationalizations which, in several instances, were outright confiscation. And yet, some companies have announced definite plans for the coming years to start mining in the Pacific Ocean as deep as 5,000 and 6,000 meters. Japanese commercial enterprises are backed by the government and an increase of 15% was decided in 1972 over the preceding year’s budget for mineral exploitation of the ocean. But Japan is by no means alone in its expanding interest in the ocean; the efforts of the Soviets have been widely publicized and the United States has been in the forefront of oceanographic activities for some time. It was inevitable that legal problems would arise from positions which are unavoidably divergent. There is virtually no marine law jurisprudence; there is no clear definition of the boundary separating two states at sea. The only international agreement with some relevance to present conditions is more than ten years old and, since then, technological progress has outdistanced the legal wisdom. At that time, the continental plateau was defined as the bottom of the sea and the sub-bottom layers of the adjacent marine regions, located outside the national territory, up to a depth of 200 meters, or beyond that limit if "the depth of the overlying waters permitted the exploitation of the natural re-
Towards a Rational Use of the Oceans 39
sources of said regions.” This satisfied the signatories of the convention because no techniques existed then which would permit penetration at greater depths. It left virtually without any "marine” territory countries bordering areas where the continental plateau is non- existant. An example is Peru which is asking, in compensation, territorial limits of 300 km, and patrols its "territory” in consequence, often capturing foreign vessels and demanding heavy fines. U. S. fishing vessels often fall victim of this practice and the U. S. Government, which refuses to recognize the Peruvian limits, bails them out. However, some countries, which have neither the manpower nor the financial means of enforcing respect of their territorial limits, could quite well entrust this task to third parties and thereby upset political situations. Finally, must we ignore the objections of land-locked countries which, perhaps rightfully, feel that the ocean belongs to all of humanity and demand their share of the wealth of the "last frontier on earth?”
Discussion about international law for the economic uses of the sea started when the U. N. delegation from Malta suggested that the ocean should not be up for grabs but should instead be shared by all of mankind. Vociferous objections were instantly raised against all proposals in this direction, especially from the firms who have been tapping the mineral sources of the sea, oil and gas.
Today it is obvious that legislation regarding the sea is no longer adequate. When the agreements were reached in Geneva in 1958 nobody realized that nations would ever want to exploit the sea at a greater depth than 200-300 meters. But today it seems quite possible that by the year 1980 the oceans could be exploited to depths of 4,000 meters. However, legislation means restriction. The idea of an international sea bed regime means limiting national jurisdiction and the question is where to set the limits and over what.
In this respect there are several problems to be solved; for instance, the problem of the continental shelf, which has not yet been defined; territorial sea and zone, fishing banks, innocent passage, international regulation and regime, exploitation and conservation of resources, and measures against pollution. Furthermore, since World War II, the fishing fleets of the world have been renewed and changed radically and catches increased rapidly. There is reason to believe that fishing might start to decline in the near future. Oil and gas now represent 90% of all the mineral wealth extracted from the sea, but today we see signs of exploitation of other minerals as well.
There is widespread belief that an international regime is necessary in order to avoid clashes over the riches of the sea but the world’s nations have quite
different views of the form of such a regime. Some want to give the authority in this matter to the United Nations or to the International Court in the Hague, but experience has taught that these institutions have no means of enforcing their decisions and thus must have the consent of all parties involved in order to achieve agreement.
There seems to be common agreement that an international regime of the sea must encourage peaceful economic exploitation of the sea and that it must ensure maximum benefits, not only for coastal states, but for the entire international community. Such a regime must furthermore be flexible enough to be adapted easily to new technology. The Geneva agreement in 1958 was very flexible, at that time, but signatories did not expect that it would shortly be possible to exploit resources at great depths.
Committees, preparing the conference of the United Nations on the Law of the Sea (1973), discussed topics such as freedom of passage through straits, coastal states’ preferences as regards fisheries, international regime versus national jurisdiction, conservation, and scientific research, and so on.
Various types of proposals concerning international machinery were put forward. The four main types are:
► International machinery for information exchange and preparation of studies.
► International machinery with intermediate powers.
► International machinery for licensing and registration.
► International machinery with comprehensive powers.
Many nations made proposals: the United States, Malta, Tanzania, Latin American countries, France, Britain, the Soviet Union, Canada, a group of landlocked and shelf-locked nations, and others. And, naturally, numerous theses are put forward. Among these, one position insists on the rights of first occupancy, which would grant ownership to the first discoverer, going as far back as the 15 th century when new lands were annexed by European nations. This would unavoidably lead to armed conflict and guarantee possession to the most powerful nations. The world ocean would soon be divided among these and become a private lake. Another thesis is based upon the logical continuity of the coast and the continental slope; hence, the national territory would continue underneath the sea, as long as the sea bottom would be, without fracture or break, the extension of the coast. Still another position recommends the subdivision of the entire ocean bottom, beyond the continental plateau, among all countries. One point that remained unsettled in this last plan was whether all shares would be equal, or which rules would determine the various shares. A final proposal would apply the high seas rule
to the ocean bottom, and thus all countries would own, jointly, the ocean bottom while no nation would acquire an individual property title over a given area.
With joint ownership, new problems arise: exploitation would then be done either by the community of nations or else the community would grant concessions for which research permits and exploitation permits would be granted in exchange for the payment of license fees. Were the community itself to attempt exploitation, the ultimate outcome would lead to a colonization of the oceans by the superpowers, since they alone possess a sufficiently advanced technology. On the other hand, a system of licensing with payment of fees, would theoretically benefit the entire community, with each country getting a share of the fees even though the work would be done by highly developed countries.
The American proposal would substitute for a regime of laissez faire, of which the United States was at one time the determined supporter, a supranational collaboration which would not hamper freedom of navigation on the high seas and beyond reasonable territorial limits. This proposal recognizes the overall interests of all humanity, the need to protect the environment, and the obligation to fairly apportion the benefits reaped from the ocean. This plan can be summarized as follows: first, beyond 200 meters depth, resources extracted from the ocean would be used partly for scientific research and partly for improvement of the economic conditions in the underdeveloped countries. Respect of the convention and administration of a common fund would be ensured by an international authority, which would have the necessary instrumentalities to impose rules enforcement, e.g., control services, courts, parliamentary assemblies, political councils and technical commissions.
The administrative domain of this authority would encompass all supra- and extraterritorial waters when they have been defined. This international authority would also grant exploration and exploitation licenses, pass anti-pollution regulations, and, in general, be the watchdog over the aquatic environment.
Although national sovereignty would affect areas of less than 200 meters depth, national sovereignty would nevertheless be somewhat reduced. The coastal state would have exploitation rights in its national area but, nevertheless, would have to pay the international authorities some fee, based on the product harvested. This fee could be as high as two-thirds of the sum collected at the time the license was granted. The proposal provides special consideration for islands and coastal states very dependent on fisheries.
This clause places riparian states under control of the international body and makes it impossible for
them to extend their territory into the international area. The greed and indifference of coastal states would thus be constrained. Such nations would be prohibited from transforming their "maritime territory” into pollution factories. The main opposition to the American proposal is the Tanzanian proposal, which is favored by many developing countries. Tanzania wants each state to set its own limitation of territorial waters with resources outside the national jurisdiction distributed according to a rule which states roughly "to each country according to its needs.” Members of the U.N. shall provide money on a basis proportional to contributions to the United Nations, which means that the United States and Europe would bear the burden. Then, income would be used for administration, exploration and exploitation expenses. The remainder, if any, would be distributed to the states that belong to the U.N. in inverse proportion to what they contribute to support the U.N. Thus, when there was an income, it would be used at first to pay back the sums paid to this international body and the remainder shared by all, with the poorest nations getting the largest share.
The Soviet proposal favors creation of an international authority to administer the sea bed resources. This authority would be governed by a small executive committee and controlled by an assembly of the signatory states.
This executive committee would be empowered to enforce adherence to the terms of the treaty, control industrial activities, assess reserves, distribution, and localization of resources, deliver licenses, and determine disposition of benefits. On the other hand, this international authority would not have jurisdiction over the sea bed nor the immediately underlying layers, nor would it have exploration and exploitation rights.
These two restrictive clauses do not appear in the Tanzanian proposal, which would authorize the international authority to own mining equipment, establish research and oceanographic institutes, and provide experts and technological assistance to developing countries which would become active in ocean exploration and exploitation. The international authority would be empowered to set prices and to decide the quantity of products that may be offered for sale, thereby protecting the smaller nation’s economy.
The Latin American group has come up with a proposal similar to Tanzania’s. It does not foresee an international machinery nor the right for such as authority to grant licenses; nor does it vest in anyone de facto or de jure ownership of the sea bed. The general trend is to put territorial limits at 20 km, with the right of innocent passage for any vessel, and economic jurisdiction at 300 km.
A proposal which has gathered strong support calls
Towards a Rational Use of the Oceans 41
for the creation of international machinery with comprehensive powers. This receives the widest consideration from the U.N. General Secretariat, and appears in proposals from the United States, France, and Great Britain. Yet the two most powerful countries—the United States and the U.S.S.R.—seemingly agree to support an extensive international regime for the oceans, with modest claims of national jurisdiction. The American proposal has reaped much criticism from large international consortiums which claim that it would stymie scientific research and exploration, and would foster exploitation conflicts. While this argument is not without merit, private concerns managed to find, and exploit, mineral resources on land, notwithstanding legislation that was quite restrictive; as a matter of fact, exploitation was so anarchic that reserves are often exhausted and the countryside is left with scars; the land is polluted. Perhaps a slower paced exploitation might be wholesome and benefit future generations.
Unfortunately, progress is very slow and probably no treaty will be signed before 1980. The workload is heavy since so many international conventions must be re-examined. Some examples are: territorial sea, contiguous zones, high seas, continental platform, fisheries, and conservation of high seas’ biological resources. It is difficult to be optimistic when one realizes that of the 127 states that are members of the United Nations organization, barely 28 have ratified the 1958 Geneva Convention.
The ocean, ideal dumping ground. About ten years ago, the ocean was praised not only for the promise it held to solve some of humanity’s problems, but also because it provided an ideal dumping ground for both human wastes and, for radioactive wastes. Since then, concrete containers containing nerve gas, ypresite, and others with radioactive wastes have been thrown into the ocean; so have street-cars, cars, untreated sewage and used water. The list is far from comprehensive. Yet, in fine, air pollution, land pollution and water pollution are all ocean pollution; the ocean is endangered ecologically, chemically, physically. We cannot allow further deterioration of the ocean. Furthermore, the ocean does not destroy matter as rapidly as was once thought. The recent experiments conducted on food retrieved from the submersible Alvin refloated after one year at the bottom shows that conservation in the ocean is quite surprising. The sea has favored the biological balance by absorbing refuse and diluting the substances which could have been destructive. Through the action of the marine flora and fauna, of absorption, digestion, transformation and concentration phenomena, regeneration of the vital environment fa
vorable to life upon our planet takes place, but the noxious elements cannot be allowed to exceed the regenerative capacity of nature. Until this century, nature’s capacity has never been challenged, but now it is endangered. The challenge has taken on new dimensions because, in addition to the large quantities of wastes brought to the ocean by rivers or directly thrown in it at the coast, and to chemical refuse and nuclear wastes poured into the ocean, we are faced with petroleum wastes and the cleansing of ships at sea. Soviet researchers found hydrocarbon derivates at depths of 100 meters in the Baltic Sea and a natural reserve near the Hange peninsula would be certainly destroyed if a planned refinery were to be constructed in the area. As far as ecologists are concerned, either we prevent exploration and drilling for marine-derived hydrocarbons, or we will founder and die in a polluted quagmire.
The exploitation of the ocean for the benefit of all humanity must be conducted as part of an overall plan that provides the clean-up of the marine environment, the fight against further pollution, the improvement of existing conditions, and the protection of the environment. Whether we consider chemical, biological, or geological resources, ocean exploitation should not be allowed to take place amidst juridical anarchy, moral irresponsibility or at the expense of future generations. Richard Cowen once compared the man who lives from what the earth provides as living off his capital, while the man who lives from the exploitation of the oceans is like a man living off his dividends. The capital-ocean must be well cared for.
Professor Vigneaux studied at the Universities of Lille, Bordeaux, and Paris, and was awarded the degrees of Doctor of Sciences and of Pharmacist. He is Vice President of the University of Bordeaux I and member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Centre National pour l’Exploita- tion des Oceans. He is Director of both the Natural History Museum of Bordeaux and the Geological Institute of the Aquitaine Basin. President of the Organizing Committee of the International Congress on the Exploitation of the Oceans of Bordeaux, Professor Vigneaux manages the Department of Geology and Oceanography of the University of Bordeaux.
Professor Charlier was born in Belgium and studied in various European universities and in America, and has earned three doctoral degrees. Now a U. S. citizen, he is a professor of oceanography at the University of Bordeaux I, he holds the chair of regional geography at the Vrije Univcrsi- teit Brussels, and is professor of oceanography at Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago). In his words, "he commutes.” He has authored articles in various American and European periodicals and has written a book on oceanography to be published by McGraw-Hill.