OCEAN RESOURCES

About Ocean Resources

FISHING FACTS!

People have fished in the waters for thousands of years, and it is an important part of human civilization. For thousands of years, fish have been crucial to the world economy, beginning with the Viking trade in cod and continuing with fisheries such as those found in Lofoten, Europe, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and India. Fisheries presently contribute around 16% of total world protein, with increasing quantities occurring in developing nations.

Fisheries remain critical to the economic and social well-being of communities. The term fisheries refer to any fishing operations that take place in the ocean, whether for commercial or recreational purposes or to harvest ornamental fish or fish oil. Fishing practices that generate fish that are unfit for human consumption are referred to as industrial fisheries.

Fisheries, such as the Alaska salmon fishery, the Eastern Pacific tuna fishery, or the Lofoten island cod fishery, are frequently ascribed to specific ecoregions. Most fisheries are marine rather than freshwater because of the increased abundance of fish on the continental shelf. Despite a total capture of 86 million tonnes in 2000, China's fisheries were the most productive, accounting for one-third of the total. Most fish were caught in Peru, Japan, the United States, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, India, Thailand, Norway, and Iceland producing the least.

The volume of fish harvested has fluctuated throughout time but appears to be around 88 million tonnes per year, possibly due to overfishing, economics, and management practices. The most common species found in global fisheries include herring, cod, anchovy, flounder, tuna, shrimp, mullet, squid, crab, salmon, lobster, scallops, and oyster. Crabs and mollusks are also popular. The captured fish are not always consumed. Around 40% of fish is used for other purposes, such as fishmeal to feed captivity-grown fish. For example, cod is consumed but also frozen for later use. Atlantic herring is used to make canning, fishmeal, and fish oil. Atlantic menhaden is used to make fishmeal and fish oil, whereas Alaska pollock is eaten but also used in fish paste to look like a crab. Pacific cod has recently been used to replace overfished Atlantic cod.

Because of natural and human-caused reasons, the number of fish available is continuously changing. In the coming years, ocean fisheries will need to be regulated to guarantee that the number of fish caught never hits zero. As seen in Japan, eastern Canada, New England, Indonesia, and Alaska, fish scarcity has a severe impact on the economics of communities that rely on the resource.

Massachusetts' cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder industries all failed, resulting in an economic disaster for the state. Because of the importance of fishing to the global economy and the need for individuals to understand human impacts on the environment, the academic field of fisheries science was developed. Fisheries science includes all aspects of marine biology, as well as economic and managerial knowledge and skills.
-By Parnika Snehi (SMSMB)

-By Charvi Gupta (SMSMB)

Ocean assets not only provide jobs, goods, and offerings for billions of people around the world but also have an immense economic importance. Ocean resources consist of food, fuel, renewable energy, minerals, sand and gravel, and tourism. There's also a lot of oil beneath the oceans. An ocean floor is virtually a perfect location for oil to form over thousands and thousands of years. This oil is called petroleum. Raw petroleum is used in three main ways:

  • Transport

  • Generating electricity

  • Producing materials

Seashells are an important section of the coastal ecosystem. Shells not only help to stabilize beaches but also anchor seagrass, act as a home for creatures such as hermit crabs and hiding places for small fishes.

The top achievable uses for seashells consist of use in:

  • Poultry nutrition

  • Water purification

  • Treating toxic waste

  • Organic fertilizer

  • Construction material

Various resources are extracted from the sea and the areas that had been formerly in the sea. These resources vary from common building materials to high-tech metals to water itself. Chemical analyses have proven that seawater contains about 3.5 p.c dissolved solids, with more than sixty chemical factors identified.


⚪MAGNESIUM

Magnesium is the only metal which is directly extracted from seawater. Presently, approx 60% of the magnesium metal and much of the magnesium salt produced in the United States is extracted from seawater electrolytically. The principal minerals mined for this purpose are magnesite (MC0.3) and dolomite (CaMg[Co3]2).


⚪ PLACER GOLD

Placer deposits are accumulations of resistant and insoluble minerals that have been eroded from the original locations or formations and deposited along river courses or at the ocean margins. Placer gold occurs when a larger load deposits and gets carried off by the water. Placed deposits generally don't start too far from their original site.


⚪ TITANIUM

Titanium's concentration in water is extremely low but its unusual oceanic distribution makes it quite useful as a new tracer of chemical transport processes in deep waters.


⚪ SALT

Salt, or sodium chloride, occurs in seawater at an awareness of about 3 percent and hence constitutes more than 80 percent of the dissolved chemical elements in seawater. The volume available in all the oceans is so sizable that it could provide all human needs for thousands of years. Although salt is extracted directly from the oceans in many international locations but almost 200 million metric tons of salt produced yearly are mined from large beds of salt. These beds, now deeply buried, have been left when waters from ancient oceans evaporated in shallow seas or marginal basins, leaving residual thick beds of salt.


⚪ TIN

Placer deposits are accumulations of resistant and insoluble minerals that have been eroded from their original places of formation and deposited along with river publications or at the ocean margins. The most important of these deposits incorporate gold, tin, titanium, and diamonds.

Gold has been recovered in the past from such deposits, most rather in Nome, Alaska. Large quantities of placer titanium minerals manifest in beach and near-shore sediments, however mining today is restrained generally to the seashores or onshore deposits because of the greater costs and environmental constraints of marine mining.

-By Manvi Thapliyal, Dishita Kaushik , Tanishka Manoj (SMSMB)

LIVING RESOURCES IN THE OCEAN

Physical as well as biological components make up the oceans. There are several types of biological components in the ocean, from bacteria and algae to giant fish and mammal species such as sharks and whales. Our living marine resources are a part of the biological component of our oceans. They are essential components of human life. The ocean's living resources include all organisms that humans use for harvesting or recreational purposes. Many of the earth's plants and animals live in marine habitats. Over one million animal species and plant species have been discovered. Scientists have estimated that an extra nine million species are still living in the marine biome and they haven't been discovered by humans yet. The organisms are mostly harvested for human consumption, but they also provide a variety of products and materials. Using sponges and algae as examples, marine chemists extract compounds that are used in products like drugs and cosmetics. Fishing, scuba diving, and aquariums are all common methods of using living marine resources. Animal feed and fertilizers are produced from living marine resources by the agricultural industry.

-By Bhavya Gupta (SMSMB)

AMONG THE ROCKS...

Deep inside the ocean there is a life without the sun where rocks are found, it’s not only deep inside the ocean but also outside the blue liquid. The natural occurring solid piece with minerals is called a rock. There are types of rocks inside the ocean some look like slabs of bars while others look like crystals with shiny or rough edges. Mostly inside the ocean we find a rock named Basalt. The oldest oceanic crust is 260 million years old for us it seems to be very old but no… it’s not it’s actually very young compared to old rocks. These simple grey, greenish or brown colored pieces are also protective, it becomes a natural barrier at the times of wave erosion or high tides. In the Stone age , stones were used as doctor’s tool for mainly surgery but now it has decreased. Now, the doctors use stainless tools or diamond tools for surgery but diamond is also found in a type of igneous rock known as kimberlite. If rocks would not have been there ,then there would be no crust. They are helpful as they help us to develop new technologies and are used in our everyday lives. Rocks and minerals are used as building material, cosmetics, cars, roads, and appliances. These are important for learning about earth materials, structure, and systems as well. It is a fact that we would be unable to survive without the rocks as we could not have minerals for fertilizers of plants that means, neither plants nor animals would have survived without the use of this precious resource. Rocks are very important to geologists because they study rocks as rocks contain clues about what would the earth looked like in past life before humans roamed the Earth. We people today our destroying the oceans from which all the corals, animals are dying but also the rocks too. Many small aquatic animals live under a rock because of following reasons-

  • There’s a lot to eat under the rocks like rotting leaves, old grass and other kinds of plants, making good food for small animals.

  • We like sunshine but lots of other animals like it dark and damp, also the moisture under the rocks prevents the animals like worms from drying out.

  • The darkness makes the small insects easy to hide from the hungry predators.

  • So, to see a happy and replenished site again “SAVE THE OCEANS” and save lives of corals, rocks, shells etc.


-By Charvi Gupta (SMSMB)


Coral reefs or Coral Triangle are the important ocean habitats which offer a compelling case of the risks of climatic change.These reefs provide a huge fraction of the world's biodiversity.

They have also been known as " The rain forests of the Seas." After the scientists researched about the reefs, they estimated that 25% of all marine species live around it which is making them one of the most diverse habitats in the entire earth .The reef's diversity is so rich that there isn't an exact amount on all the species living over there and every year a new species of aquatic plant is discovered. These Coral Reefs also provide a variety of economic benefits which includes recreational activities , tourism , coastal protection etc. These are the places of ocean biodiversity which is supporting more aquatic species per square meter than any other marine habitat. These coral reefs have been scared by many anthropogenic trauma in which some have already had big impacts worldwide . There ecosystem also gives the recreation and tourism activities and shoreline protection . In addition to diversity among species,the idea of biodiversity includes ecological diversities within species. The species diversity refers to the variety of different types of species found in a particular area. It also includes all of the species which are ranging from plants to different micro-organisms .

-By Manvi Thapliyal (SMSMB)