Resource Potential of Oceans

Fisheries and food

Potable drinking water Rich source of protein Energy Supplies
(desalination plants) Important economic activity in Great potential for tidal and wave power
developing countries (subsistence and
commercial)

Minerals and Chemicals

Transport
Tourism Coastal salt pans
Oceans are worlds highways
Coastal attractions and activities Some offshore dredging for high value
For bulk transport of oil (tankers), minerals such as diamonds
Ocean cruises
minerals and metals (bulk ore carriers)
Vital importance for island countries Offshore drilling for oil and gas
Container ships are used for transporting
such as Maldives in Indian Ocean Building materials such as sand and
consumer goods
gravel are also found in oceans
Fisheries and Food
• The main fisheries are located on the continental shelves.
• Continental shelves are the platform of level land of no more than
200 metres deep. Part of land which is under the oceans. Beyond the
shelf, oceans tend to deepen.
• They have shallow waters where light can penetrate easily and there
is more oxygen than further down.
• Nutrients are abundant, therefore abundance of phytoplankton.
Minerals and Chemicals
• Many materials in the oceans have been eroded from land.
• Salt, magnesium, diamonds, tin, titanium, gold are often found in
oceans.
• Extracting rocks from seabed includes some of the environmental
damage. Also it is difficult because of the depth of the ocean.
Worlds Fisheries
• Refer to Pg 142
• Physical and human factors
 OCEAN CURRENTS
• Ocean currents act much like a conveyor belt, transporting
warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles
and cold water from the poles back to the tropics.
• Thus, ocean currents regulate global climate, helping to
counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching
Earth's surface.
 Ocean Current
• Cold Currents
• They carry water that is colder than their surrounding. They move
from poles to equatorial areas
• Examples of cold ocean currents include the Canary Current in the
North Atlantic, the California Current in the North Pacific, and the
Benguela Current in the South Atlantic.
• Warm currents
• They carry water that is warmer than their surrounding areas. And
they move from equator towards the poles.
• Gulf Stream begins in the Caribbean Sea and join North Atlantic drift.
• The current carries warm water to Iceland and the British Isles. As a
result, these places have warmer climates than they would otherwise.
(Hence there are palm trees along the coast of Ireland.)
 EL-NINO
• El Niño means The Little Boy, or Christ Child in Spanish.
• El Niño was originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of South
America in the 1600s, with the appearance of unusually warm water
in the Pacific Ocean.
• The name was chosen based on the time of year (around December)
during which these warm waters events tended to occur.
NORMAL YEAR IN PERU
• Peruvian current is supplied by cold
water from Antarctic drift.
• Upwelling of cold water takes place
(when minerals from the ocean floor is
brought upto the surface)
• Cold currents are rich in nutrients
thereby attract more fish.
• Fishing industry flourish in Peru -
agricultural opportunities are less
• More fog and mist but less rainfall.
EL NINO YEAR IN PERU
• South east trade winds are weaker
• Warm water from Indonesia flows eastwards
• Usual cold currents are reversed – warm
waters.
• Warm waters kill phytoplanktons and fish as
oxygen levels and nutrients are low
• Large shoals of fish migrate towards colder
waters.
• More rainfall, more agricultural
opportunities.
 Questions
• State three reasons why most of the worlds major fisheries are found
on the continental shelf.
• Explain why the reversal of ocean currents in El Nino year causes
reduction in the catch from the Peruvian anchovy fishery.