1998 Year of the Ocean The Legendary Ocean — ^The Unexplored Frontier 



Marine mineral resources are extensive and (in deeper waters) poorly known. The 

 exploitation of these resources will require an expansion of geological knowledge in order to 

 locate them. If severe damage to the seas is to be avoided, it will also require a better 

 understanding of the ecosystems with which these mineral resources are associated and the 

 development of technology to extract them without causing significant damage. 



Oil use has increased dramatically in recent times, and the seabed holds unexploited 

 reserves. The ocean also has deposhs of gravel, sand, manganese crusts and nodules, tin, gold, 

 and diamonds. Many of these deposhs are located in coastal areas where potential environmental 

 problems associated with their exploitation may be so serious that they cannot now be mined in a 

 responsible manner. Many of the mineral deposits about which little is known occur in the deep 

 ocean on underwater volcanos and ocean ridges, or on the flanks of the more than 50,000 

 seamounts in the Pacific Ocean. 



Perhaps more important than the search for minerals is the search for medications. Marine 

 plants and animals have biotechnological potential in the treatment of a wide variety of human 

 illnesses. Coral reefs, sometimes denoted as the rainforests of the sea, contain novel chemicals 

 that can be used to fight cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and other diseases. Since the discovery of 

 penicillin in mold more than 60 years ago, scientists have looked for potential drugs in soil 

 microbes, and more recently, in marine microbes. While chemicals from land-based plants and 

 microbial fermentation are on the decline, scientists have barely scratched the surface of the sea's 

 molecular potential. 



"Extremophiles", micro-organisms with the ability to thrive in extreme environments 

 such as hydrothermal vents, hold promise for genetically based medications and industrial 

 chemicals and processes. Their unique enzymes, called "extremozymes," enable them to function 

 in such forbidding environments. Last year, the biomedical industry was foremost among 

 industries worldwide which spent more than $2.5 billion searching for potentially useful 

 enzymes. The newest frontiers for this search are the extreme ocean environments. 



Some of the most critical exploration is happening closer to home in the shallow waters 

 that surround us. While likely to have been unnoticed at the surface, scientists are working just 

 below the waves to understand the coastal ocean and how human populations interact with it. An 

 example is the underwater observatory, LEO-15, located in 15 meters of water just 10 km off the 

 coast of Atlantic City. Using it, scientists can study estuaries and coastal waters, which are 

 nursery grounds for some of the most important commercial fisheries, now under stress. The 

 disposal of agricultural, industrial, and domestic waste, pressures from overfishing, and shipping 

 are putting the coastal ocean at risk. Scientists are studying the effects of coastal development 

 and the natural processes that circulate material from land into rivers, bays, lakes, and the ocean 

 to determine the fate of contaminants in the environment, the critical role that chemical 

 constituents play in the production of organic matter, and their impact on marine life. For 

 example, scientists are trying to determine what changes in the environment, both natural and 

 man-made, might be promoting the expansion of harmful algal blooms, the demise of coral reefs, 

 the loss of fisheries, global warming, and other problems. Developments in the understanding of 



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