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with other techniques, are clearly foreseen possibilities that may transform the 

 entire world food picture in fifteen years' time. In the meantime, the first steps 

 in the transformation of the ways in which the living resources of the sea are 

 utilized have already been taken with the development by scientists of the 

 United States Bureau of Commercial Fisheries of fish-protein concentrate 

 (FPC) from less popular fish. A factory to produce fish-protein concentrate is 

 being built. It is expected that ten grammes of this concentrate "will provide 

 adequate animal protein to meet the daily requirements of one child at an 

 estimated daily cost of less than one cent" in United States money. 



Commercial ocean farming and fish husbandry, which I have mentioned in 

 passing, lie in the future ; national appropriation and the commercial exploita- 

 tion of the mineral resources of the ocean floor, on the other hand are iuuninent. 

 Leases have already been granted for the mining of phosphorite deposits lying 

 well beyond the continental shelf, at depths exceeding 1,000 metres and at a 

 distance of up to 50 miles from the nearest coast. A prototype submersible for 

 commercial mining of the rich manganese-nodule deposits of the ocean floor 

 at depths up to 4,000 metres is under construction now and other are planned. 

 The nodules will be raked from the ocean floor and pumped into the vessel : 

 from the submersible the nodules will be transferred easily to an accompanying 

 cargo-ship by means of a floating conduit. 



If the mineral resources lying on the ocean floor are incredibly vast, equally 

 vast are the resources lying below the floor's surface. 



We know little about the presence of vein deposits, yet they must in all likeli- 

 hood exist, as their presence appears to be confirmed by a report which appeared 

 on 7 August this year in The 'New York Times, to the effect that a rich concen- 

 tration of gold, silver, zinc and copper ores had been found under the Red Sea 

 at a depth of 7,000 feet. "A very conservative estimate puts the value of ores in 

 this deposit alone at about $1.5 billion" in United States money. 



More is known about petroleum, gas and sulphur deposits. The resources ap- 

 pear to be phenomenal and estimates of reserves are constantly increasing as ex- 

 ploration proceeds. In 1947, Pratt estimated world petroleum reserves under the 

 seas at 1.000 billion barrels; in ]966 these were estimated at 2.5 trillion barrels 

 by Rear Admiral O.D. Waters. Jr. 



Present off-shore commercial petroleum production is confined to the con- 

 tinental shelf at present in waters not exceeding 100 metres in depth and it still 

 uses land technology. This situation cannot be expected long to continue. Semi- 

 submersible drilling rigs in operation today are capable of drilling in water in 

 depths up to 350 metres. The Mohole project, discontinued in 1960, also potently 

 stimulated progress in the techniques of deep-ocean drilling, and a vessel was 

 constructed capable of drilling to depths of 7,000 metres. Self-propelled, ocean- 

 going oil-drilling rigs currently being advertised in technical journals can anchor 

 in water ISO metres deep and drill 6,500 metres into the ocean floor. Remote-con- 

 trolled robots for underwater use have been developed to maintain underwater 

 well-heads. Methods of transportation to the coast of off-shore oil are also being 

 improved. Oil is now carried by barge, but undersea pipelines already exist : it 

 is probable that we shall see their extension beyond the continental shelf in the 

 near future. 



The forces that led to the national appropriation and intensifying exploitation 

 of the continental shelf continue to gather strength. Ex])loitation of the con- 

 tinental shelf over the past twenty years was a gradual process : we nmst look 

 to its intensification and to the rapid extension of national appropriation and 

 exploitation far beyond the shelf in the next few years. There are various con- 

 siderations that make such a development virtually certain. 



Public and private expenditure on oceanographic research and technology is 

 increasing very rapidly. In the United States governmental expenditures in these 

 fields were only $29 million ten years ago ; they are now nearly $500 million and 

 are projected to exceed $5 billion in ten years' time. Similar increases in gov- 

 ernmental expenditures may be observed in the Soviet Union and France and no 

 doubt also in other technological advance countries. Increases in public expendi- 

 ture are paralled by increases in private exjienditure. particularly liy the oil com- 

 panies. Massive expenditure is likely to make possible far earlier break-throughs 

 than are now foreseen in the technology still retiuired to make in<^onsive com- 

 mercial exploitation of the ocean floor possible. As it is. remarkable advances in 

 technology have been obtained with limited budgets in the last few years. 



Seven years ago the deepest part of the ocean, the bottom of the IMariana 

 Trench, was reached for the first time by a self-propelled vehicle, the bathyscaph 



