Appendix 7 



Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 



Woods Hole, Ma»s., October 17, 1967. 

 Mr. Marian Czabnecki, 

 House Foreign Affairs Committee, 

 Rayhurn Building, Washington, D.C. 



Dear Mr. Czarnecki : Sorry that I will be unable to appear before your com- 

 mittee on economic resources of the sea floor. Perhaps after the ALVIN dives 

 next week and the ECAFE conference in Taiwan on mineral resources of the 

 Asiatic shelf I can set aside some time for your committee. 



In hope that they may be useful to you, I am enclosing several reprints on 

 economic resources of the sea floor. 

 Sincerely, 



K. O. Emery. 

 Enclosures : 



(1) Human Food from Ocean and Land, article in Science, September 15, 1967. 



(2) Some Potential Mineral Resources of the Atlantic Continental Margin 

 (U.S. Geological Survey Prof. Paper 525-C), Contribution No. 1615 of the Woods 

 Hole Oceanographic Institution. 



(3) Geological Methods for Locating Mineral Deposits on the Ocean Floor, 

 reprinted from : "Exploiting the Ocean", Contribution No. 1791 of the Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution.^ 



[From Science, September 15, 1967] 

 Human Food from Ocean and Land 

 (By K. O. Emery and C. O'D. Iselin)' 



During recent years many claims tiave been made about the importance of the 

 ocean to man's future well-being. Some of these claims appear to us to be reason- 

 able, whereas others have an Alice-in- Wonderland quality. As a basis for judg- 

 ment in this matter, we liave compiled a table that shows our estimate of the 

 tonnage and dollar value of food derived from the ocean as compared with that 

 derived from the land during 1964, the latest year for which statistics are reason- 

 ably complete. The difference in the former productivity of the ocean and the 

 land is so great as to suggest that an enormous effort will be required before the 

 production of the ocean can be comparable with that of the land. 



A sort of genetic classification of food resources was used to compare the 

 present stages of technology in the ocean and on the land. For plants, the primi- 

 tive stage is that of gathering wild plants (on land^berries, nuts, mushrooms, 

 herbs) ; the next stage is farming (whereby seed are planted and the plants are 

 tended and then harvested). For animals, the primitive stage is that of hunting 

 wild animals for food (on land — deer, rabbits, quail) ; the next stage is herding 

 (whereby selected breetling, culling of young, and controlled slaughter are prac- 

 ticed along with the nondestructive taking of byproducts such as eggs, milk, and 

 wool). This terminology, gathering and farming of plants, and hunting and 

 herding of animals, is also applied to the ocean in a strict sense. For example, 

 we consider that only algae or bacteria can be farmed, and that oysters, clams, 

 and fish can be herded (not farmed) as an improvement over catching them in 

 their wild state. Note that nonedible materials such as lumber, whale oil, shells, 

 I)earls, wool, hides, and fertilizer are not included in this study. 



The production figures (Table 1) are uneven in quality. Some figures, such 

 as those for fishing, herding, and farming are reasonably well known and have 



^ Retained in the subcommittee file. 



- Thp authors are members of the staff of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods 

 Hole, Mass. 



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