Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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Ocean Resources
The ocean provides us with many things: fresh water to drink 1, over half of the oxygen we
breathe, a cheap way to transport goods, recreation (sailing, swimming, etc.), and so on.
(It also takes a lot of things from us, typically waste products.) According to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in 2008 at least 28 million jobs in the
United States were related directly or indirectly to the ocean, which was about 1 in 6 jobs!
In this section, we will examine the things that we take from the ocean. I will split the things-wetake-from-the-ocean into two major categories, living and mineral resources, but first we must
discuss ownership rights.
Human Populations and the Ocean
Right now, more than 50% of our population lives in coastal counties (that cover 17% of the land in the
lower 48 states), so that doesn’t even count the population of the counties that are just a little bit inland
like San Bernadino and Riverside. The same holds true worldwide: over half the world’s population lives
in a narrow strip of land (say, within 60 miles) of a large body of water, and most of the rest lives only a
little farther inland. The ocean has always provided enormous benefits to humans, so most people live
near the ocean.
You can tell that most people in the United States live close to the coast from the presidential election
results in 2000 and 2004. In 2000, both Bush and Gore got about 48% of the vote, with Gore getting
about ½ million more actual votes (as opposed to votes in the electoral college). In 2004, Bush got 51%
of the vote, and Kerry got 48% of the vote. Thus, in both races about half of the people voted for the
Republican candidate and half voted for the Democratic candidates. If you look at the electoral maps,
though, you will see that most of the country looks pretty red (Republican), except for the west coast,
New England, and the states bordering the Great Lakes. Thus, even though “red” covers more than twice
the area covered by “blue,” its population is not any larger; well over half our population has to be living
near the coast.
Great Lakes
2004 Presidential Election
1
Water evaporates from the ocean, leaving the salt behind, and eventually condenses in the atmosphere,
falling as rain.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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Who Owns the Oceans?
Early ocean law was based around the simple facts that the ocean is really big, and no one could
really enforce rules. Thus, the idea of “freedom of the seas” developed: everyone has the right to
travel across the ocean unhindered. This includes an attitude of “finders keepers” (whatever you
find – fish or treasure – are yours) which is still enshrined in ocean law. For example, in
November 2003, a salvage company found a sunken Civil-War-era ship with about $150 million 2
in gold onboard (it was being sent from the “North” to the “South” for reconstruction after the
war). Even though the gold originally belonged to the federal government, the company only
had to pay taxes on it; the rest was theirs. Since the ocean is so big and there is no easy way to
place markers of “ownership” (fences, signs, etc.) – and our ability to extract fish and minerals
from it was so limited in the past – the attitude developed that everyone should be able to take as
much as they want from the ocean. To people in the past, it did not seem possible that we could
remove all of the fish (or other organisms), and this led to sayings like “there are plenty of fish in
the sea.” When you break up with your significant other (e.g., boyfriend or girlfriend) and your
friend tells you this, do you believe them? It certainly is no longer true in our oceans. For
example, we have successfully eliminated about 90% of the large fish in the ocean.
Until the early 20th century, the idea of a “territorial sea” was the primary idea guiding ocean
law. A nation could claim any and all resources within about 3 miles from land, roughly the
range of an old-fashioned cannon mounted at the shoreline. (I consider this to be a “mightmakes-right” kind of law. If I could sink you if you try to take it, then it must be mine.) After
World War II, President Truman declared that the United States owned all of the resources and
territory out to the edge of its continental shelf (in part for the resources and in part as a buffer
against attack with newly-invented nuclear weapons mounted on submarines sneaking up to the
coast). Inspired by his example, more and more nations began claiming territory farther and
farther from their shores which led to many disputes between countries.
To help end the growing disputes, in the 1960’s the United Nations stepped in to try to get all
nations to agree on a set of rules. The result is what is known as the “Law of the Sea.” It was
held up for a long time – until 1982 – because nations had particular difficulty agreeing on deepsea mining rights and where submerged submarines could go. Although the United States has
always obeyed the Law of the Sea, President Reagan refused to sign it, because he (like the
leaders of many other developed countries including England, France, the Soviet Union, Japan,
etc.) believed that companies should be able to take minerals off the deep-ocean floor in areas
which no one owned. Developing nations like India and Brazil disagreed, arguing that the
United Nations should set up a company to harvest the resources, and the profits should be
shared equally among all the people of the world. After some concessions, the United States
signed the Law of the Sea under President Clinton, but it has still not been ratified by our Senate,
because some senators think that the United States should not sign any “unnecessary”
2
Companies still have to pay taxes, of course, and when things are found on the ocean floor, other people will often
try to make a claim for them. For example, a company called Odyssey Marine Exploration is currently being sued
in U.S. courts by the government of Spain for gold coins that it recovered from sunken treasure galleons (gold that
Spain “stole” from Central and South America originally, as far as I am concerned). In particular, Spain and others
want to force the company to reveal the location of the sunken ships in court to justify the company’s claim to the
gold (is the gold in a place where anyone can salvage it?), but if the company does so, it is worried that other people
will rush to the location and take any remaining gold. The company wants to go back and look for more gold itself.
After all, it spent a lot of the time and money searching for the sunken ships in the first place.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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agreements with foreign countries which restrict our freedom of action. Ironically, high-level
business interests, environmentalists, and military leaders 3 all agree that it should be signed so
that the rules will be clear – even if not perfect from our perspective – and further development
can proceed without risk of the rules being changed suddenly.
So what does the Law of the Sea say? (What is so terrible, according to those senators?) All
ships should be allowed free, unrestricted passage through the ocean. All countries have a 12mile “territorial sea” around their coast in which their own laws apply, and a 200-nautrical-mile 4
“exclusive economic zone” (EEZ) in which the nation owns all the economically valuable
resources (e.g., fish, oil) and can enforce pollution laws, but otherwise have no special rights.
International bodies regulate deep-sea mining, and all nations agree to U.N. arbitration of
disputes (i.e., they will not go to war over a deep-sea oil deposit). Of course, the Law of the Sea
has not settled all problems. The United States and Canada regularly fight over how many
“American” and “Canadian” salmon are caught in one another’s EEZ. There are lots of disputes
over potential oil and gas deposits. For example, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, and
Malaysia all claim the Spratly Islands, desolate little rocks where no one lives (aside from some
military personnel 5 – and tourists! – sent there to stake claims).
The word “exclusive” in EEZ implies that the economic resources (fish and minerals) are the
property of our nation, that we alone can use them. It is like being in an “exclusive” relationship
with your significant other: they cannot date other people; they are “yours.” If your boyfriend or
girlfriend does cheat on you, then I guess that they are just E-Z. ☺
The Law of the Sea greatly expanded the area under the control of nations. For example, the size
of the United States more than doubled, thanks in part to the large number of small islands taken
from the Japanese during World War II that became U.S. “territories.” This is a vast area, to a
large extent still unexplored in any detail. Canada has sent military ships up to Arctic islands
where no one lives to make sure that it is clear that the islands are theirs and that their EEZ
extends as far as possible out into the Arctic Ocean. As global warming melts the North Pole,
we will be able to get at the oil deposits on the sea floor and shipping will have a shorter route
from Europe to the west coast of North America and East Asia (by 2020). The Canadians want
to make sure that they are well-positioned for this eventuality (legally and on the ground). In
2007, the Russians sent a submarine to plant a flag at the North Pole for similar reasons.
3
I find it amazing that legislation cannot get passed when all 3 of these groups agree on something.
The United States may be signing the Law of the Sea soon, though. Once we do so, we can officially begin to set
our EEZ. The ice in the Arctic is melting and oil companies are buying up land for refineries, ports, etc. We need to
stake our claim (and oppose other countries that have already signed the Law of the Sea) for the oil resources that
we will soon be able to access owing to global warming.
4
It can be larger if the continental shelf is larger. However, it is not always clear exactly where the continental shelf
“ends.” There are several bitter disputes about oil deposits where the size of the continental shelf is the key issue.
5
A few examples: In 1988, Chinese troops killed 70 Vietnamese sailors. In 2002, Vietnamese forces fired on a
Philippine jet. After the last incident, all sides agreed to resolve the conflict through peaceful means. Hence,
tourists are being sent to the islands. In 2010, a Chinese fishing boat rammed a Japanese coast guard vessel.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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International Trade: Beyond the Reach of the Law
As in the past, few laws govern international shipping (few enforceable laws, at least). There
are about 40,000 cargo ships crisscrossing the oceans, mostly run by shadowy, offshore
companies flying “flags of convenience” from countries that tax and regulate them lightly (a
huge number are ostensibly “from” nations like Panama and land-locked Bolivia!). There is
no way that the 50,000 men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard can properly inspect all the
cargo and crew of the 60,000 calls made at U.S. ports by huge cargo ships.
Pirates are still a problem in some parts of the world, especially the east coast of Africa and
the South China Sea. Somali pirates tend to hold the crews, ships, and cargos for ransom. In
the South China Sea, the ships’ crews, mainly from poor countries, are marooned if they are
lucky, killed if they are not. The pirates operate “phantom ships:” they re-paint and re-name
the ships at sea, and quickly unload cargo in ports and take on more, disappearing before local
authorities realize who and what they really are.
Mineral Resources
The most valuable mineral resources that we extract from
the ocean are petroleum products like oil and natural gas.
These “fossil fuels” not only power our vehicles and
appliances, but are part of many manufactured items like
plastics. Currently, about 1/3rd (33%) of the oil and natural
gas that we use are extracted from the ocean. In the past, I
would have said that this is likely to rise, but with the
development of “fracking” technology, more and more oil
and natural gas production is taking place on land in the
United States.
The second most valuable mineral resource that we take
from the ocean (about 5% of the total) are sediments like
Oil Drilling Platform.
sand and gravel that are used in the construction of roads
Courtesy of Andrew Schmidt
and buildings (e.g., in concrete), beach restoration,
(public domain).
building levees, and so forth. In a few places, sediments
even have enough gems or precious metals (e.g., gold, silver) mixed in with them to make them
worth mining from the sea floor, but very, very, very little of our precious metals come from the
ocean.
Dredging Sediments. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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The concrete all around you
Pound for pound, concrete is the second most common substance used by humans (the most
commonly used substance is water). It is all around you: roads, sidewalks, the walls and
foundations of buildings, and in many other things. Concrete is composed of bits of rock like
sand and gravel held together by a “binder” material called a cement. One of the key ingredients
for cement is calcium. Thus, sea floor sediments are important sources for the ingredients for
concrete: Sand and gravel are often found on the continental shelves, and the calcium carbonate
shells of plankton pile up on the ocean floor and over time become the sedimentary rock
limestone. The limestone we mine on land to make cement was once the ocean floor. (About
10% of all sedimentary rock is limestone.) Unfortunately extracting the calcium in limestone to
make cement releases a lot carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The production of the cement is
the third largest human activity that increases the Earth’s greenhouse effect and contributes to
global warming (electrical power plants and transportation like cars and trucks are top two).
The third most valuable mineral resource, salt, was much more
important in the past when it was essential for preserving
foods (very important before refrigerators). For example,
during the independence movement in India, Mahatma Gandhi
famously led the “march to sea” in which people made their
own salt from ocean water so that they would not have the pay
the British taxes for this essential item 6. Salt is used for much
more than flavoring and preserving food nowadays. For
example, salt is used in a variety of industries (e.g., dying
fabrics, making soaps) and in products (e.g., fireworks, in the
walls of your home as “wallboard” or “sheetrock”). Much of
the salt mined on land was originally in the ocean, and was left
behind when the water evaporated away.
Salt Mining. Courtesy of Rhodian (public domain).
Evaporation Ponds for making salt south of the
Dead Sea. NASA.
6
No one wants to pay taxes that will be used to pay for the police and troops that oppress them.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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There are several mineral resources that are not
currently taken from the ocean (because it costs more
to remove them from the ocean than one can get for
selling them), but as technology improves in the
future, they may one day become economically
valuable. Probably the most valuable potential
mineral resource is “gas hydrates,” also known as
“methane hydrates.” Dead bodies of ocean organisms
like plankton accumulate in ocean sediments, and
when they are decomposed (“broken down”) by some
bacteria, methane (CH 4 , “natural gas”) is released. In
the deep, cold, high-pressure waters of the ocean,
methane often bonds strongly with water molecules in
the sediments, and forms muddy chunks of ice with
natural gas trapped inside. Gas hydrates are of
interest to many people, because they are another
potential source of fossil fuels, and oceanographers
estimate that there are so many gas hydrates in ocean
sediments, they would triple our supplies of fossil
fuels (a 200% increase in the amount of fuel!).
Gas Hydrates: Ice on Fire.
Unfortunately, gas hydrates are hard to retrieve,
US Office of Naval Research / USGS
because they cannot be pumped up to the surface
(they are solid, not a fluid) and as soon as they are brought
upwards into warmer, lower-pressure water, they begin to melt.
Another potentially valuable mineral resource
from the ocean are phosphorite deposits, ocean
sediments (or sedimentary rocks) that are rich in
phosphorus. As you know, phosphorus is a
“nutrient,” so these deposits can be made into
fertilizers. Some phosphorite deposits that are
mined on land were once underwater in the
ocean. Like gas hydrates, the phosphorus
(nutrients) comes from the bodies of organisms
that fall to the bottom of the ocean and
decompose in the sediments, but unlike gas
hydrates, the richest phosphorite deposits are
typically found on continental shelves.
Phosphorite. USGS.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
My final example of a potentially-valuable, ocean
mineral resource is manganese nodules. These are small
(up to the size of a tennis ball) nuggets of metal that form
when chemicals (“salts”) solidify (congeal, “precipitate”)
out of ocean water over millions of years on the cold,
high-pressure floor of the deep ocean. They are primarily
made of manganese and iron, but have small amounts of
copper, nickel, and cobalt. The United States has
expressed particular interest in the cobalt, since our main
supplies – needed for militarily and economically
important applications like high-powered magnets and
jet engine parts – come from southern Africa, a
potentially “politically unstable” part of the world.
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Manganese Nodule
Mining Rare Earth Minerals from the Sea Floor?
Japanese researchers recently (2010) announced the discovery of large deposits of “rare earth
minerals” on the ocean floor. The minerals are needed to manufacture a variety of high tech
items including solar panels, cell phones, TVs, cars, and more. China is currently the major
exporter of rare earth minerals, but it recently stopped selling them to Japan, probably in part
because of their dispute over fishing grounds and seafloor oil and gas deposits. Like Japan, the
United States does not want to rely on China as their primary source for these essential minerals.
Mineral Resource or Living Resource?
Fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, coal, methane hydrates, etc. are typically considered “mineral”
resources, because we dig them out of the Earth. However, fossil fuels are the remains of onceliving organisms who bodies have partially decomposed and been chemically altered. (That is
why they are called “fossil” fuels: fossils are the remains of organisms.) Since they derive from
living things, you might consider them to be living resources instead of mineral resources.
Diatomaceous Earth
Diatoms are phytoplankton. Their silica shells are full of tiny holes and do not interact
chemically with most substances. (This is why we use glass as a container for our liquids.)
Sedimentary rock composed of diatom shells is useful for “filtering” and “cleaning”.
Diatomaceous earth is used in a variety of products and processes, including: refining sugar,
straining yeast from beer, swimming pool filters (which remove “gunk” from the water),
toothpaste, household cleaners, kitty litter, to clean up chemical spills, and much, much more.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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Living Resources
The main living resources that we extract from the ocean
are animals and algae for food. A “fishery” is any wild
population (group) of organisms that we harvest (take
from the ocean), thus people talk about shrimp and oyster
fisheries even though shrimp are crustaceans and oysters
are mollusks, not fish. Conveniently, most fisheries are
located close to the coasts, so fishermen do not have to
travel too far to reach most animals. Fish and other
animals caught from the ocean are worth a lot of money.
In 2004, the shrimp fishery in Mississippi (just one kind
of animal in one state) was worth about $500 million. In
2001, $80 billion in marine animals were harvest from
the ocean, and over 70,000 people were employed in
catching and processing them just in the United States.
NOAA, Dept. of Commerce
On average, humans get about 1/6th
(16%) of their protein from the ocean.
People in some countries, of course,
eat more than others (e.g., the
Japanese). Not all of the fish that are
caught are used for human
consumption. About 1/3rd (33%) of the
catch is ground up and fed to “farmed”
fish and ordinary farm animals 7 like
cows, pigs, chickens, and so forth to
help them grow faster. In this way, the
ocean provides a much larger
proportion of our protein than the
figure of 16% that I quoted at the
beginning of the paragraph.
Fish Meal: Ground up fish.
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration,
Dept. of Commerce.
7
Grinding up animals and feeding them to other, non-carnivorous animals is a common practice in big-business
agriculture. (Maybe the chicken that you ate last night really was “chicken of the sea.”) It is also how illnesses like
“mad cow disease” are spread through a food supply: diseased animals are ground up and fed to other animals.
Waste not, want not, I suppose.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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An important but often overlooked use of ocean organisms is as a source of useful chemical
compounds, particularly those with medicinal uses. As you may or may not know, many of the
drugs that we use (e.g., aspirin) were originally found in nature, and then later we learned how to
make (“synthesize”) them with advanced chemistry. Scientists are now “bioprospecting”
throughout the world, looking for animals and plants with special chemicals that they use for
attack, defense, mating, camouflage, and so on to see if they might have a practical use (e.g.,
medicines). Given the vast number of unknown and chemically unique ocean organisms (e.g.,
like those found near hydrothermal vents), there is good reason to hope that we might find
amazing cures out there in the ocean. For example, recently (2008) scientists discovered that a
species of “sponge” secretes a
chemical which destroys the
ability of bacteria to resist
antibiotics. Hundreds of marinebased compounds have already
been patented. Of particular
interest are places in the ocean
with high biodiversity (a large
number of different species all in
one spot), like coral reefs and
deep-ocean sediments.
Sources of New Medical Drugs? National Oceanic
Bioprospecting is not just a search for medical and Atmospheric Administration, Dept. of Commerce.
drugs, though. For example, recently a
scientist studying dead bacteria in seafloor mud
Sponges
used his research to develop a way to catch
athletes who cheat by taking synthetic/artificial
testosterone, a popular (and banned) anabolic
steroid. Another team of scientists studied how
an ocean worm makes a strong glue that can
harden underwater, and learned how to make it
themselves. Many scientists hope to find
chemicals that will help them create “biofuels,”
fuels derived from the remains of plants or
algae. An example of a biofuel that you may
have heard about is ethanol 8. Currently, the “holy grail” of biofuel research is to go from dead
plant matter to hydrogen fuel. (When hydrogen fuel is burned in fuel cells, the exhaust is pure,
clean water. There is no air pollution or greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.)
Scientists have developed a fast, efficient technique for making hydrogen from starch using
enzymes from living organisms (enzymes are special proteins that cause specific chemical
reactions, some of the enzymes had to be genetically engineered). The major goal now is to
figure out how to make hydrogen from cellulose and other waste materials. We do not want to
produce fuel from the parts of plants that people to eat (and thus reduce our food supply).
8
Unfortunately, we cannot produce ethanol from corn efficiently enough yet.
Brazil can produce ethanol at a competitive price, because they use a better plant (sugarcane).
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College
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Bioprospecting: Why sponges?
Sponges are huge-colonies of individual cells that work together to survive. They wiggle tiny “tails”
(flagella) to bring water in through their sides, and plankton in the water get trapped in small holes.
Sponges are soft-bodied organisms that cannot move. Their only defense against predators are the
chemicals that they produce. Sponges appear to be the earliest form of “animal” life (or something close
to it) and the only way they have been able to survive as a species is to evolve the ability to make potent
and unique chemicals at least as fast as predators have evolved ways around them. In this “evolutionary
arms race,” each side drives the other to develop bigger and better weapons.
Ocean life is useful for more than chemicals. “Silicon valley” in particular may owe something
to the ocean in the not-too-distant future. Tiny, silica-shelled phytoplankton and zooplankton are
helping scientists build “nanotechnology” like very tiny semiconductor chips, crystals for lightbased computers, and chips for making chemicals or analyzing DNA. The shells of some
organisms (e.g., diatoms, sea urchin shells) have been used as “molds” for these microscopic
objects. Scientists are also learning how silica-shelled organisms grow their shells and hope to
use the same methods to assemble their microscopic devices or genetically engineer organisms to
“grow” the devices for them. Manufacturing silicon chips and other electronic devices requires
harsh chemicals and generates dangerous wastes, but these organisms achieve similar results
with no pollution. Perhaps they can teach us a thing or two.
Scientists also study swimming dolphins, penguins 9, whales, and other ocean organisms for
better ways to design ships and submarines to maneuver, move quickly through the water while
expending less energy, or remain stable in turbulent waves and currents. They are also learning
how plankton swim for medical purposes: to build tiny swimming machines to inject into our
bodies. The machines could carry chemotherapy drugs to tumors, break up clots in blood
vessels, and much more. Scientists are also studying the structure of dolphin’s brains to learn
how to design better SONAR systems (which use sound to “see” objects underwater).
Bioprospecting Your Way to a Nobel Prize
In 2008, the Nobel Prize for chemistry was given to Osamu Shinomura, Martin Chalfie, and
Roger Tsien, researchers who engaged in marine bioprospecting. In 1962, Dr. Shinomua
isolated green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, the substance that
makes it bioluminescent (in other words, allows it to generate light, to “glow”). Later, Dr.
Chalfie figured out how to insert the gene for making GFP into other organisms’ DNA so that
the cells in the organisms “glowed” when the genes it is next to were “turned on” in the cells.
This made it much easier to carry out genetic research; instead of needing to carry out careful
and time consuming tests, scientists could literally “see” when and where genes were being
activated in organisms’ bodies during experiments. His technique led to faster progress in
medical research, and is now standard throughout the world. Dr. Tsien made the technique even
more useful. He discovered similar proteins in corals that produced different colors, so now
scientists can test multiple genes at one time (different genes produce different colors). Most
importantly, they can study genes’ interactions and effects on one another more easily & quickly.
9
Penguins must generate huge forces for their size to jump out the water and onto the ice.
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Power from the Ocean
Like hydroelectric and geothermal power, the ocean is a potential source of renewable electric
power: tides, winds, waves, even the temperature difference between the mixed layer and the
deep ocean.
In some places in the world, tides are already being used to generate electrical power. All you
need to do is to build a dam that blocks the flow of the water into or out of an estuary. Then,
once the water on one side is at its highest, let the water run through, just like hydroelectric
power on a river. The flowing water spins turbines containing magnets (spinning a magnet
produces electricity). This is only economical in big estuaries with narrow entrances (smaller
dams are cheaper to build and maintain) and large tidal ranges (more water = more electricity).
Tidal Power. Barrage de la Rance, France. Courtesy of Tswgb (public domain).
Winds blow strongly and steadily across large parts of the ocean. In some places (e.g.,
Denmark), offshore “wind farms” are already in use. It is more expensive to place and maintain
wind turbines in the ocean than on land, but there is lots of space in the ocean. Often the main
objection to offshore wind farms is that they would spoil the view. I do not disagree, but some
argue that there is something beautiful about looking at wind turbines and knowing that your
community has less air pollution and is contributing less to global warming. In 2006, the U.S.
Congress added an amendment to a Coast Guard bill that “killed” the first, large offshore wind
farm in the United States near Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Offshore Wind Power, Denmark. Courtesy of Leonard G., Creative Commons Sharealike 1.0
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Wave power has enormous potential. The Department of Energy has estimated that the wave
power along the east coast of the United States is at least 10 times the wind power available in
the Midwest. For island countries or nations with large coastlines, fully 1/5th (20%) of their
power needs could come from wave and tidal power. The biggest problem with wave power is
the ocean itself: the generators are damaged by storms or slowly corroded. Maintenance and
repair costs quickly eat into the profits and efficiency of power generation. Also, waves are too
slow to generate power efficiently. To create electricity, you need to make a magnet accelerate
(move faster). Waves provide lots of motion, but do not produce a lot of acceleration; the
motion is “too gentle.” Since the 1970’s, many improvements have been made to deal with both
of these issues, so you may read more about “wave power” in the not-too-distant future.
Wave Power. Portugal. Courtesy of S. Portland (public domain).
Some scientists hope that we can make biofuels from algae. They are searching for good
candidates and attempting to genetically engineer algae to make the conversion process efficient
enough to compete with oil. We could grow the algae in large tanks. Better still, if they are
ocean algae, then they will grow in seawater, so we could create biofuels without using up any of
our limited supply of fresh water!