NEW AGP: of the sea — YEAGER 393 



As flights into space become routine in the next decade, the nation may turn 

 in another direction for the next great research frontier — and new raulti-billiou- 

 dollar marketing opportunities. Close at hand, but still largelj' out of reach, the 

 depths of earth's oceans are in many ways more a mystery than outer space. 

 The coming drive to plumb the ocean's secrets will mean a great new source of 

 profits for industry. As the navies of the world slowly submerge, demand for 

 equipment that can function under water will burge(tn. As the industrial nations 

 exhaust many of the natural resources of the laud surface, submarine miners 

 will increasingly exploit the incredible mineral wealth of the oceans, and as the 

 world's population expands beyond the capacity of arable land to feed it, the sea 

 will become a critically important source of edible flora and fauna. , . . Although 

 the objective of the oceanographers is more scientific knowledge of the ocean 

 and the ocean floor, commercial benefits are sure to follow. Here is one example : 

 leading oceanographers are convinced that underwater telephone cable breaks are 

 the result of ocean bottom landslides. If and when oceanographers are able to 

 predict where such displacements of bottom soil will take place, the telephone 

 companies will be able to avoid multi-million-dollar repair bills by laying cables 

 elsewhere or by other methods. . . . When all the current activity connected 

 with the oceans is evaluated, the dimensions of present and potential market 

 opi)ortunities look really impressive. 



But the industrial outlook for the sea eiiconipasses far more terri- 

 tory than that suggested above. Besides a trend to improved and 

 more efficient cable laying, a series of other submarine activities are 

 beginning to take place — undersea pipelines, such as the projected 

 crossing of the Mediterranean from North Africa to Spain for pump- 

 ing gas and oil ; undersea tunnels, such as the 32-mile Dover-to-Calais 

 project beneath the English Channel; offshore mining, such as the 

 new sulphur operations in the Gulf of Mexico; the development of 

 robot equipment for undersea operations, such as the Remote Under- 

 water Manipulator which can act as the hand of man on the ocean 

 floor through a 5-mile coaxial cable. 



Then there is the ultimate usefulness of the oceans and coastal areas 

 as places of storage. The seas have been used for generations, of 

 course, as a dumping ground for contin.ental wastes. But the storage 

 demands of the future will be far more sophisticated. One already 

 showing urgency is the storage of unwanted radioactive byproducts 

 of atomic energy. Low-level wastes are presently being dispersed in 

 the sea. High-level wastes cannot be stored there, at least not until 

 much more is known about the inner workings of the sea itself and 

 ways are found to contain the material in a manner which permits 

 radioactive dissipation over long periods of time without contaminat- 

 ing the water. 



These very developments, however, as they crystallize, promise a 

 revolutionary shift to sea storage for other commodities and pur- 

 poses — especially for those which need to be maintained in cool, stable 

 temperatures and/or unexposed to oxygen. As land becomes ever more 

 scarce and the costs of using it for storage less feasible, it will not be 



