Economic Benefits from Oceanographic Research (1964) / Chapter Skim
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Uses of the Sea
Uses of the Sea
Pages 21-46
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From page 21... ...
A study by the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission indicates that, in 1960, boats and outboard motors were used by 5,020,000 households. The National Association of Engine and Boat Manufacturers claims that 793,000 inboard motor boats and 4,085,000 outboard motor boats were used in 1962.
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From page 22... ...
The demand is so great, in fact, that in effect, ways must be found to "stretch" the natural shoreline. While there are many sociological problems associated with effective planning for marine recreational facilities, our concern here is with the physical, chemical, geological, and biological factors that affect the maximum recreational utilization of the marine environment.
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From page 23... ...
Aesthetic values cannot readily be converted to monetary ones. One possible measure is the gross value of goods and services expended in connection with the recreational use of the marine environment.
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From page 24... ...
We have always used the adjacent marine environment as a dumping ground for unwanted municipal and industrial waste products. The increase in population density is causing a shift from individual septic systems, local collection networks and sewage-treatment plants to large-scale interceptor sewage networks and centralized treatment plants.
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From page 25... ...
Providing the collector systems, interceptor sewer systems, and treatment plants for domestic sewage will cost between $70 and $100 per capita for the capital costs of the sewage-treatment plant. Thus, in the next 30 years, approximately 1.5 billion to 2.0 billion dollars should be spent on sewage-treatment plants that will discharge treated effluent into estuarine and coastal segments of the marine environment.
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From page 26... ...
Probably most of the new sewage-treatment plants that will discharge effluent to the marine environment will be designed to remove 80 + 15 per cent of the BOD. The incremental increase In operating costs for the sewage-treatment plants required in the coastal belt in the next 30 years is approximately 50 million dollars per year per 10 per cent increase in percentage of remove 26
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From page 27... ...
This discussion has been limited primarily to the relationship of oceanographic research to the problems of discharge of treated domestic sewage effluent into the in-shore marine environment herniae rho chic ~ £ ~ ~ ~ uu~c sewage treatment were more readily available than were equivalent data for other questions bearing on public health, welfare, and recreation. The same oceanographic research required to define the physical, chemical, and biological character of the in-shore marine environment in relation to domestic sewage effluent is also required to deal with the effects of industrial wastes and effluents from nuclear power plants.
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From page 28... ...
This quantity of ocean cargo will require full-time use of between 20 and 30 million deadweight tons of cargo ships, partly under the United States flag and partly under foreign flags. Assuming a 20-year life for these vessels, the world rate of ship construction for replacement of existing tonnage carrying our trade will be between 1.0 and 1.5 million deadweight tons annually.
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From page 29... ...
In particular, lower shipping costs would help the less-developed countries, because they are so largely dependent for their economic development on the overseas sale of raw materials and agricultural products, and on the importation of heavy machinery for industrialization. Oceanographic research can make significant contributions to a reduction in ocean shipping costs.
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From page 30... ...
Minimum Time Paths and Reduced Storm Losses If the causes of waves, the mechanisms for their growth, propagation, and decay, and the effect of waves on ships were completely understood, and if the distribution in time and space throughout the world oceans of these causes and effects were known, it would be possible to predict what would happen to a ship along any given route. Ships could then be routed along an optimum time track or routed for maximum comfort or safety.
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From page 31... ...
Especially needed at this stage are efficient methods of tracking vessels, improved communications, further development of the confidence of maritime operators in utilizing the technology, and, most important, better knowledge of winds and currents near the sea surface and of the generation, propagation, decay, and effects on the ships of ocean-surface waves. For a ship whose operating costs at sea run $3,000 per day, a saving of 12 hours on a transoceanic crossing is worth $1,500.
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From page 32... ...
Fixes of this sort are independent of the cloud cover that prohibits star fixes, and of the sky-wave problem, precipitation static, and occasionally poor transmission that sometimes interfere with obtaining good positions from electronic positioning systems. Considerable portions of the world's coastlines still need to be surveyed by modern methods, and there exist no accurate charts of over 95 per cent of the ocean.
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From page 33... ...
These would contribute to more efficient operation, and hence lower costs in present harbors, and would help in designing the new harbor facilities that are needed to serve the world's increasing ocean trade. But most harbors would still be crowded; the difficulties of maneuvering large ships in constricted waterways, with winds and strong tidal currents running at large angles to the slips, would still remain; and the problems of shoaling channel bottoms, polluted harbor waters, and conflicting uses of the shoreline would persist.
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From page 34... ...
To accomplish this, marine biological research on the fouling organisms themselves must be accompanied by development of pesticides and other means to control them. In San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay, a sudden and severe invasion by marine borers between 1917 and 1921 caused failure 34
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From page 35... ...
Oceanographic research has shown that these animals are to varying degrees sensitive to salinity, temperature, food supply, current action, pollution, dissolved oxygen concentration, pH, and the amount of dissolved H2S in the water. Considerable progress has been made in reducing the ravages of marine borers, largely through pretreatment of wood used in harbor structures by pressure creosoting.
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From page 36... ...
Because the sea behaves more sluggishly than the air, these observations indicate that improvements in long-range weather forecasting can be made through studies of the large-scale interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere. The present accuracy of longrange forecasting is low, but if it could be improved, great economic benefits would follow; for example, in planting and harvesting crops, in planning seasonal fuel transportation and storage, in the time of building and road construction, and in flood and drought protection.
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From page 37... ...
The farm value of cattle and hog production in 1962 was $9 billions Weather-produced variations in the size of the crops of corn, oats, and hay have serious economic effects for livestock producers, as do changes from year to year in the productivity of permanent pastures and range lands, caused by variations in seasonal rainfall. Significant savings would be obtained if the farmers could plan how to feed and dispose of their stock on the basis of reliable long-range weather forecasts.
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From page 38... ...
The persistence of weather patterns over periods of weeks to years may result, in part, from this sluggishness of tl~e ocean. The hope of improved long-range weather forecasting depends on our learning how to predict changes in persistent weather patterns.
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From page 39... ...
Speeding up Exploration Over very large areas, the ocean waters, their populations of living things, and the underlying sea floor are little known. During the past hundred years, a few research and survey vessels have made exploratory traverses across the South Pacific, the Arctic, the tropical Atlantic, and the Indian Oceans.
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From page 40... ...
Deep-Sea Sediment Thickness Seismic refraction studies during the last 15 years hare yielded much information about the average thickness of sediments under the deep sea floor. This method gives only averages for lines 30 to 70 miles long, and it is so cumbersome that widespread coverage could not be achieved in the near future.
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From page 41... ...
Data Exchange Both theoretical studies and description of large-scale ocean processes demand compilations of observational data on an ocean-wide or global scale These data should be quickly and easily available to all interested scientists. World data centers equipped to collect, store, and retrieve suitable oceanic data have already proven useful, and continuing international cooperation in the operation of such centers is highly desirable.
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From page 42... ...
Among these are: the increases in international understanding that result from both the planning and operational aspects of cooperative efforts; strengthening of national prestige; and assistance to the scientific and economic progress of less-developed countries. An oceanographic ship in a foreign port, dedicated to advancing knowledge, is one of the best means of increasing public appreciation of the unity of science.
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From page 43... ...
the level of oceanographic research capability required to meet unforeseen military contingencies in which new knowledge of the oceans will be needed; alternative uses of funds and people that might be substituted for present or future oceanographic expenditures in order to provide the required level of effectiveness of naval weapons systems more quickly or less expensively; and the extent to which present and planned naval oceanographic expenditures are meeting the Navy's needs for knowledge of the oceanic environment. Finally, if these needs are not being met, 5)
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From page 44... ...
When echo-ranging, the additional environmental factor of backscattering due to marine life and irregularities in the sea surface and the sea floor must be considered. Sonar Design and Performance Surveys of the seasonal distribution of temperature, salinity, and sound velocity in the water column, and research leading to the ability to forecast changes in underwater "weather" are required to estimate the performance of sonar gear in a particular season and geographic area.
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From page 45... ...
Polaris Program Many techniques and instruments used by Polaris submarines required oceanographic information for their formulation and design. The sonar, acoustical, and search aspects of Polaris operations are the mirror image of the problems of antisubmarine warfare, with the emphasis on evasion instead of attack.
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From page 46... ...
An effective effort to improve our deep-water engineering capability will depend, in part, on detailed knowledge of the currents, internal waves, sea-floor topography, bottom sediment and rock characteristics, biology, acoustical properties, and behavior of visible light in the deep sea. Missiles and Space Veh icles The over-water missile-test ranges in the Atlantic and Pacific represent a national investment of several billion dollars.
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