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the elements of Mendeleyev’s periodic system, with their total 
amounts reaching fantastic figures . . . ocean water has some 
10 billion tons of gold, 4 billion tons of uranium, and 270 billion 
tons of heavy water. The reserves of metals, minerals, fuels (oil, 
gas, and coal), various chemical raw materials, nuclear material, 
power and food reserves locked in the seabed are so vast that 
there is no comparison whatsoever with the known reserves exist- 
ing on land. A considerable part of the seabed is covered with 
ore concentrations consisiting of iron, manganese, cobalt, nickel, 
copper, and rare earth elements. Geologists believe that great 
reserves of various natural resources lie in the seabed. Already 
major deposits of oil and gas are known today in the North 
Sea, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Persian Gulf, off the coasts 
of Alaska and California, and in other areas. Moreover, it is 
postulated that the main deposits of oil and gas are located not 
on land but in the seabed. ... The importance of exploiting 
them is already increasing. Prospecting for oil and gas reserves 
is being carried out in almost all areas of the Continental Shelf, 
and the output of ‘maritime’ oil is approaching 20 percent of 
the entire petroleum output. The truly inexhaustible energy 
resources of the ocean—its tides, currents, temperature gradients 
of the water .. . also are of vast economic interest. The stores 
of animal protein, that is fish, sea animals, plankton . . . in the 
world ocean ... permit one to regard the sea as one of the 
most important means to solve the food problem of the world’s 
growing population. Today the catching of fish and other ‘gifts 
of the sea’ is carried out only in a small section of the ocean 
surface consisting of about 10 percent of it. The annual world 
catch of fish equals some 60 million tons, but in the near future 
it may reach 100 million tons or more. ... The problem of 
obtaining common salt, magnesium, bromide, iodine, and several 
other substances from seawater has been successfully solved from 
an economic and technical standpoint; ways have been found 
to obtain uranium, gold, and other valuable elements from sea- 
water. The dimensions and scale of this work are such that in 
the near future major changes in the world economy may be 
affected. . . . Today man is capable of living and working at 
depths of 200 meters, and soon underwater stations will be 
lowered to 700 to 1,000 meters. . . . The C.P.S.U. program calls 
not only for utilization of know natural resourses but also 
prospecting for new ones. The world ocean is assuming extreme 
importance in connection with this. Its study and the utilization 
of its resources is becoming one of the greatest state problems 
aimed at supporting the economic might of the Soviet Union. 
A great deal of attention was paid to this in the documents 
of the 24th C.P.S.U. Congress. . . . The growth in appropriations 
for (oceanic) goals . . . is explained by the economic interest 
of all states in more complete utilization of the ocean’s riches. 
Today this is one of the most important international and national 
problems entering the orbit of world politics. Just as in the 19th 
century the question of the division of land into spheres of in- 
fluence became particularly acute, at present the intentions of 
several . . . countries to establish spheres of influence in the 
