THE THIRD WAVE
results in ruthless overkill and threatens the total extinction of many forms of marine life. By contrast, intelligent “aquacul-ture”—fish farming and herding, along with plant harvesting—could make a major dent in the global food crisis without damaging the fragile biosphere upon which all our lives depend.
The rush to offshore oil drilling, meanwhile, has obscured the possibility of “growing oil” in the sea. Dr. Lawrence Raymond at the Battelle Memorial Institute has demonstrated that it is possible to produce algae with a high oil content, and efforts are under way to make the process economically effective.
The oceans also offer an overwhehning array of minerals, from copper, zinc, and tin, to silver, gold, platinum and, even more important, phosphate ores from which to produce fertilizer for land-based agriculture. Mining companies are eyeing the hot waters of the Red Sea which hold an estimated $3.4 billion worth of zinc, silver, copper, lead, and gold. About 100 companies, including some of the world’s largest, are now preparing to mine potato-shaped manganese nodules from the sea bed. (These nodules are a renewable resource, forming at the rate of six to ten million tons per year in a single well-identified belt just south of Hawaii.)
Today four truly international consortia are gearing up to start ocean mining on a multibillion dollar scale hi the mid-1980’s. One such consortium brings together twenty-three Japanese companies, a West German group called AMR, and the U.S. subsidiary of Canada’s International Nickel. A second links Union Miniere, the Belgian company, with United States Steel and the Sun Company. The third venture unites Canada’s Noranda interests with Mitsubishi of Japan, Rio Tinto Zinc, and Consolidated Gold Fields of the United Kingdom. The last consortium ties Lockheed to the Royal Dutch/Shell group.
These efforts, says the Financial Times of London, are expected to “revolutionise world mining activities for selected minerals.”
In addition, Hoffmann-La Roche, the pharmaceutial company, has been quietly scouring the seas for new drugs, such as antifungal agents and pain-killlers or diagnostic aid and drugs that stop bleeding.
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