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Proclucts Front the Sea ANIMAL PROTEIN Living organisms (mostly animals, but including some plants) that provide food and industrial materials are the most important resources that we take frown the sea at this stage in history. In the United States, we obtain a significant share (5 to 10 per cent) of our animal-protein food from the sea, but in some other nations (especially in Asia) protein from the sea is indispensable. The total annual production of the world's marine fisheries increased from 25 to 40 million metric tons between 1955 and 1969. This is an increase of about 7 per cent each year a rate that promises to continue in the near future. Of the total catch in 1961, 9.6 million tons went to the production of fishmeal (used for animal food, thus providing human food indirectly) and oil. This compares with about four million tons in 1955. The world's industrial uses of fish are increasing more rapidly than the use of fish directly as food for humans. The latter, however, still shows an aver- age growth rate of ~ ~/2 per cent per year, more than twice the rate of growth of the world's population. Most of this increase in fish harvest is a result of the activities of other countries. In the United States, consumption of edible fishery products has been for many years about 10 to 11 pounds per person per year. Our total in- creased use of fish for direct human food seems directly related to population growth. The total supply of fish destined for direct human consumption was 4,020 million pounds in 1949, and had risen to 4,593 million pounds by 1962. During these 14 years, the share caught domestically declined from 3,305 million pounds to 2,523 million pounds, while imports increased from 71o million pounds to 2,070 million pounds. During this same period, there has been a large increase in the indirect contribution of fisheries products to our diet through the use of fishmeal in foodstuffs for poultry and livestock. Most of the fish protein eaten by a growing chicken is retained as protein in its body. United States industrial fisheries products (mostly fishmeal and oily have a more favorable prospect than edible fishery products. Despite an increase in imports from the round-weight equivalent of 522 million pounds to 2,571 million pounds per year from 1949 to 1962, domestic production over the same period grew from 1,500 million pounds to 2,717 million 13
pounds per year. While the share of the market supplied by domestic pro- ducers declined, their actual production nearly doubled. The value of the U. S. catch to the fishermen in 1962 was $381 million, which corresponds to something over a billion dollars of the Gross National Product, since the products approximately triple in value between the producers and the final consumers. From the 50 per cent of the total supply provided by imports, probably another half billion dollars was added to the Gross National Product by processing and marketing within the United States. An important function of U. S. marine research and development is helping our fishermen find means of catching fish more efficiently and land- ing them more cheaply, thus enabling them to recapture a large share of the domestic market ant! to provide a more abundant supply of animal protein at lower cost. This seems quite feasible. It is not the whole story, however, because the United States has substantial and rapidly growing interests in foreign fisheries. Our country imports large quantities of shrimp, tuna, and lobster. A large share of this imported food is produced by companies owned in whole or in part by U. S. operators. Likewise, a significant part of our fishmeal imports is produced by U. S. companies with foreign plants. U. S. companies operating overseas also market products in many other countries, both in the nearly 30 countries where their plants are located and else- where. Nearly all this foreign-based fisheries development by U. S. companies has taken place since World War II, mostly within the last 10 years, and the rate of development is accelerating rapidly. From a review of the imperfect information we have been able to obtain through trade channels, we can estimate conservatively that U. S. firms and individuals at the present time gross about $175 million a year from fishing operations conducted outside the United States. In the newly exploited sea area where most of these fisheries are being established, oceanographic research is an important aid to development. Increasing the U. S. domestic catch of fish requires the existence of suf ficient additional productive potential of fish stocks accessible to our fisher- men, and the existence of markets for the catch. Both of these conditions, we believe, can be satisfied if the necessary research is done on the living resources of the sea and methods of harvesting them. For example, a large population of anchovies exists off the coast of California, which appears to be capable of sustaining a fishery of about a million tons a year. Taking this catch should assist in rebuilding the , ~ , , - , ~7 stock of sardines faith which they compete. A very large unused stock of hake exists in the same region. Both these species are used primarily as fish meal. Research has shown that the population of jack mackerel off the Pacific coast, now supporting a catch of about 45,000 tons a year, could support greatly increased catches. Large stocks of demersal fish exist in the Bearing Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, as well as large populations of ocean 14
perch (redfish) in the latter. Catches of over a million tons a year are being made by Russian and Japanese fishermen from these stocks. There is no good reason why U. S. fishermen should not participate in this bonanza. During the past two years, a new high-seas fishery by U. S. tuna vessels for bluefin tuna and for skipjack tuna has begun in the Atlantic. The presence of skipjack in commercial abundance was not known a few years ago. The new fishery for these valuable species, and for the tropical tuna species further south in the Atlantic, may be expected to grow to rival the present tuna fishery in the Eastern Pacific, which now produces landings valued at over $40 million a year. Continued growth of the Pacific tuna fishery is to be expected because, although the populations of yellowfin tuna and per- haps of albacore are near their level of maximum sustainable harvest, catches of skipjack tuna, certainly, and of bluefin tuna, probably, can be greatly increased. Continuing research will undoubtedly reveal many further new opportunities. So far as the domestic market is concerned, if our fishermen, through research and engineering, can recapture the share of the market lost to im- ports during the past decade and a half by cutting their production costs, an annual market for nearly 800,000 tons of edible fish and a similar amount of industrial fish would be provided. Additional markets exist in other countries, if prices are competitive. The world's burgeoning popu- lation and increased consumption of fishery products should assure a market in the foreseeable future. Research on the ecology and biology of the organisms supporting the marine fisheries is of direct economic value in two ways. ( 1 ) For those fish populations being substantially exploited, it can provide both the basis of more efficient catching operations, and the basis of "conservation" (maintaining the populations at levels that will produce maximum yields year after year>. Such fish populations are now in the minority, but they include the most valuable species in waters contiguous to the United States, and the more valuable species supporting U. S. overseas fishing operations. With the rapid increase in the world's fisheries, additional fish populations are being utilized to the point where conservation management based on scientific understanding is required. (2) For the populations that are little used, or not used at all, research on their habits and reactions to the chang- ing sea can provide the basis for developing means to catch them cheaply, so that they can be exploited economically in large volume. Such little- used fish stocks occur both in distant waters and near the United States. As we have pointed out, immense numbers of anchovy and hake live off the West Coast of the United States, and large stocks of demersal fishes exist ok Alaska. Rational development of the U. S. domestic fisheries could result in doubling the U. S. production in 15 years. The growth of overseas fisheries of the United States will be much more rapid, probably increasing by a factor of four within a decade. However, this growth rate cannot be estab 15
fished or maintained, unless oceanic investigations are conducted on a world-wide basis to find: (1) how the locations and sizes of the fish popula- tions vary with changing conditions in the sea; (2) the ocean conditions that bring about economically catchable fish concentrations; and (3) those aspects of behavior that can be exploited to reduce the costs of catching the fish. Recent work in the Indian Ocean has revealed large unused populations of tuna, shrimp, lobster, and sardines. U. S. fishery enterprises are planning to develop these resources. Within approximately 10 years, the addition to the Gross National Product from increased fisheries-oriented oceanic research can be in the neighborhood of two billion dollars a year. We estimate that the necessary marine research and development will cost about 50 million dollars a year. While oceanographic research in support of the development of U. S. fisheries appears to be such that a good direct economic return could be expected from the research expenditures, there are substantial but less tangible benefits from the development of foreign-based fisheries, e.g., better- fed people and increased foreign exchange earnings in underdeveloped countries. These are matters in which our nation has a very large stake. The trend of development of high-seas fisheries seems to be toward world-wide operations supplying a world market, employing both large, long-range vessels operating from ports of the countries whose flags they fly, and vessels, both of the originating countrys' flags and other flags, operating from "overseas" bases. The trend is well developed by the Japanese and is a significant factor in the Russian fisheries. Scandinavian, Spanish, French, and German operators are also getting into the game. As we have shown above, this is a rapidly growing sector of the U. S. fishing industry. We believe that U. S. participation in this development should be recognized and actively encouraged by the Federal government, both on humanitarian grounds and because by this means we hope to maintain a leading position in harvesting the living resources of the world's oceans. MINERALS We will consider three classes of marine minerals: 1) dissolved sub- stances in sea water, 2) sediments and accretions on the deep sea floor, and 3) consolidated and unconsolidated deposits on the continental shelves. Dissolved Substances Sea water contains many of the minerals necessary to the world's chemical industry. At present, in the U. S., substantial amounts of sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium metal and compounds, and bromine are obtained from sea water by solar evaporation 16
and electrochemical processes. These will continue to be the main eco- nomically producible materials, but they might be produced at lower cost. If processing costs could be reduced, some additional elements might become economic (e.g., strontium, rubidium, lithium, fluorine). One possibility is to combine a chemical-processing plant with a plant converting sea water to fresh water. One set of pumps could service both installations, and the effluent of the freshwater plant would be concentrated twofold to fourfold. . . Another little-investigated possibility is the use of organisms (especially micro-organisms) to concentrate such elements as iron, copper, uranium, . . i. zinc, anc ~ 1oulne. Taking advantage of such possibilities will require a great deal of ingenu- ity, and must depend on new knowledge from basic and applied research and engineering. A modest portion of the funds currently being used for sea-water-conversion research could be allocated to such studies. Although drugs, by and large, cannot be classified as minerals, the sea has been a useful source of drugs including agar, cod liver and other fish oils, chondrus extract, spermaceti, ichthyol, and various chemical combina- tions of iodine, magnesium, and bromine. Limitations on medical utiliza- tion of substances from the sea are perhaps due to lack of knowledge about the compounds that may be available. Antibiotics may be one of the unexplored potential products of the sea. The presence of antibiotics in tontine organisms has been demonstrated, and several workers have been investigating this potential resource over the past decade. The pace of their discoveries indicates that our present knowledge is small compared with what remains yet to be discovered about the pharma- cology of marine organisms. Sediments and Accretions on the Deep Sea Floor Materials on the deep sea floor of possible economic interest, with rough estimates of total reserves are: Tonnage Material Estimates Elements of Interest Manganese nodules Phosphorite nodules Globigerina Ooze Diatomaceous Ooze Red Clay Barium sulfate concentrations Magnetic Spherules 1 012 1 olo oil 013 015 Mn, Cu. Co, Ni, Mo, V, Zn, Zr P. Zr CaCO3 sio.' Cu. Al, Co, Ni BISON Ni, Fe Manganese nodules may now be commercial ores for the metals listed in the table above, and will probably be developed within one or two decades, as high-grade deposits on land become further depleted. At present, U. S. prices for these metal's gross recoverable values are estimated to range from 545 to $100 a ton, and some experts believe that the nodules can now be 17
mined at a profit. Several companies are beginning to invest sizeable amounts of money in the development of methods for dredging and proc- essing them. Efficient mining of these deposits will require large-scale operations, with a single unit producing at least 5,000 tons of nodules per day, at a gross value of about 5125 million a year. At least one such opera- tion is likely to get under way within the next 10 years, as soon as sufficient data become available for engineering its development. An important prerequisite to such development is better understanding of the variations in composition and abundance of nodules in different sea areas. This might cost $5 million a year during the next two decades. Phosphorite nodules are found in many places, mostly on the outer con- tinental shelves and off-shore banks, in much shallower water than that in which manganese nodules are found. The most promising deposits near the United States seem to be those off Southern California, which contain up to 50-60 million tons of phosphatic minerals. Due to the cost of freight from phosphate sources in the interior of the country, these might be mined and marketed competitively in California, Oregon, and Washington, and possibly also in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. The present market in Califor- nia is about 300,000 torts a year, while the East Asiatic market is nearly 3 million tons. The California ofI-shore deposits are comparable with low-grade Flor- ida phosphates, rather then with so-called high-grade phosphates. They contain 31-32 per cent PoO5 after removal of the non-phosphatic materials with which the phosphate minerals are mixed, and after calcining of the latter to remove organic matter, water, and carbon dioxide. High-grade phosphate contain 36-38 per cent P4,O5. This is not a serious handicap for the marine deposits, since the world market for low-grade phosphate is at present about 30 million tons a year while the market for high-grade phosphate is 12 million tons. Unfortunately, the California depostis have a significantly higher content of metallic impurities than the Florida phos- phates, and this would reduce their value by about one dollar a ton, to ap- proximately $12 a ton on the dock in California. Shipping costs would lower the sales realization in Japan to around 56 a ton. Other potential deposits, off Australia or India, for example, appear more promising. As a rough estimate, a new industry with a gross value of S10-20 million a year could be developed within the next decades, based on these re- sources. A world-wide search for undersea phosphate, and basic research on the mechanisms and conditions of its formation, would cost several mil- lion dollars a year, but it could pay off handsomely. The other materials in the table above will probably not come into pro- duction for a long time, although there is some current interest in certain deposits of Globigerina ooze, which compare with ASTM Types I and II cement rocks. The latter account for about 95 per cent of the cement-rock market. Explorations in the Gulf of Mexico have produced evidence that sug 18
gests the existence of a cluster of salt domes in the Sigsbee Deep. Fur- ther research in this area could add oil, gas, and sulphur as possible min- eral resources from the deep sea floor. There are several enclosed basins in which strong concentrations of sulphides in the sediments are found- for instance, the Black Sea and the Cariaco Trench off Venezuela. Probably there are similar concentra- tions at some places in the Gulf of California. Research in such areas might lead to economic extraction of sulphide minerals, particularly if some of the radioactive elements could be collected as a by-product. Deposits on the Continental Shelves The principal mineral resources of the continental shelves now being exploited are oil, gas, and some sulfur. While an increase in oceanographic research in connection with these resources may be justified, we will as- sume that such research is already adequately funded by commercial com- panies. There are, however, other potentially valuable mineral concen- trations on the continental shelves that are receiving less attention. These are the placer deposits of drowned beaches and other shelf areas. The diamond-bearing gravels off the southwest coast of Africa are an example. The average yield is about ~ carats per ton, compared with about 1 carat per ton normally recovered in the South African diamond fields. Of the diamonds recovered so far, nearly all are gem stones, which bring the high- est prices. The present production rate has been reported to be as high as $15,000 a day. Recent prospecting in sea areas oR Nome and Juneau, Alaska, has indicated the presence of substantial quantities of gold-bearing sands; mining of these will probably begin soon. Tin ores in drowned beach and alluvial deposits are presentaly being dredged off the coasts of Malay- sia, Thailand, and Indonesia in waters up to 40 meters in depth. The pos- sibility of similar undersea deposits should be investigated on the conti- nental shelf off Cornwall. Magnetite-rich sands are being mined for their iron content by ships in shallow waters off Japan. Over the past four years, the Japanese have dredged 7 million tons of relatively high-grade iron ore from the bottom of Tokyo Bay; they are mining other magnetite deposits in waters up to 30 meters deep within a few kilometers of the shore, at a rate of several thousand tons of concentrate a month. Iron-rich sands sim- ilar to the Japanese deposits exist off Alaska, but their extent is not known. Chromite-bearing sands are found off Alaska, and titanium sands are believed to occur off Florida, as well as off India, Ceylon, [apan, and Australia. Monazite sands containing thorium and rare earths probably occur on the continental shelves off Brazil and India. In all the regions where modern beach sands have a potentially valu- able mineral content, a good possibility exists that the fossil beaches, further offshore and in deeper water, accumulated similar deposits during the lower-sea-level stages of the Pleistocene. We believe that geological and mineralogical research, at a level of 19
several million dollars a year and directed specifically toward the location of mineral deposits on the continental shelves, could generate new industry grossing at least 550 million a year within a decade. In addition to the investment in research, the development of the ma- rine-minerals industry will require substantial capital investment for engi- neering development and procurement of equipment. Thus, only a portion, perhaps 30 per cent, of the benefits to be gained can be attributed to oceanic research and surveys.
