NEW AGE OF THE SEA — YEAGER 391 



THE SEARCH FOR RESOURCES 



Running parallel with the patent needs for fresh water and produc- 

 tive soil is the less obvious but worldwide demand for new supplies 

 of all resources. Among the most needed for the future, according 

 to conservation engineers, are biological, mineral, and energy re- 

 sources. In each category the sea offers particular hope for efficient 

 capture and use. Moreover, the sea has as yet hardly been tai^ped 

 as a supplier. 



Biologically, the sea could be made to yield a Ihnitless amount of 

 protein enrichment for the human diet. Dr. Edward Wenk, a marine 

 scientist who serves as executive secretary to the Federal Council 

 for Science and Technology, points out that the sea "is filled with rich 

 fauna and flora drifting at the surface, or in layers at intermediate 

 depths; there are meadows of plants and swarms of large and small 

 animals grazing or preying upon one another." He adds that only a 

 very few of the 20,000 species of fish are caught and fewer still used, 

 that little is actually known about fishing stocks, rhythmical seasonal 

 changes and their sporadic fluctuation, but that the advent of such 

 information will put a new face upon fishing. Fishing will then 

 lose its hunting characteristics and assume those of cultivation. De- 

 velopment of important plants with life-stimulating properties may 

 be handled the same way. 



As far as minerals are concerned, the ocean floors have recently 

 been found to contain high concentrations of manganese, cobalt, nickel, 

 iron, and copper. But the potentially greater source of mineral supply 

 rests in the sea water itself. Ordinary sea water is now known to 

 contain 41 elements. Many of these (aside from chlorine and sodium) 

 are in relatively large quantities — such as magnesium, sulfur, cal- 

 cium, potassium, bromine, boron, carbon, strontimn, silicon, and fluo- 

 rine. Others, far less abundant, nevertheless are minerals which are 

 becoming critical for modern scientific purposes — cesium (for plasma 

 engines), uranium (for atomic energy), molybdenum (for heat-re- 

 sistant alloys), and the like. 



To date we have learned to extract only bromine and magnesium 

 from sea water on a practical basis. But we know that plants extract 

 potassium from the sea and animals like the octopus extract a copper 

 compound for use in their blood as an oxygen carrier. So the processes 

 for "mining" the sea undoubtedly exist. When they are uncovered, 

 the world should have an unexcelled new natural supply of vital 

 mineral resources. 



Perhaps the most attractive side of the sea from a resources stand- 

 point, however, is its potential as a source of energy — energy which 

 can be tapped without depleting some limited type of fuel resource 

 such as coal or oil. 



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