PROMI $ E OF THE OCEAN $ : GEOLOGICAL, BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL RESOURCES

1. PROMI$E OF THE OCEAN$:GEOLOGICAL, BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL RESOURCES William H. Hoyt, Ph. D. Professor of Oceanography Director, School of Chemistry, Earth Sciences, & Physics, University of Northern Colorado

2. SUSTAINABILITY OF OCEAN RESOURCES • Geological Resources Oil and Gas, Manganese Nodules, Base Metals, Geothermal Heat • Biological Resources Fisheries and Fish Farming, Coral Reefs and Associated Products • Chemical Resources Salts (NaCl, MgSO4, KCl) Hydrogen, Helium, Boron, etc. • Physical Resources Energy from Waves, Tides, Currents, and Ocean Thermal Energy

3. APPROACH TO DISCUSSING SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES SUCH AS CLIMATE CHANGE (Warming, Cooling),POLITICAL CHANGE (U.N. Law of the Sea), and ECONOMIC CHANGE (China and India Calling the Shots)will all be alluded to, but will NOT be the main focus of discussion/speculation.

4. OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA-GATHERING TECHNIQUES AND CRAFTS—FROM HMS CHALLENGER TO SATELLITES • Expeditionary Oceanography Vessels – HMS Challenger, RV Vema, SSV Westward • Site-Specific Specialty Vessels – RV Glomar Explorer/Challenger, JOIDES Resolution, D/V Chikyu • Submersibles - RV Alvin, ROV Jason, ROV Argus • Satellites - Seasat in 1978 to TOPEX/Poseidon1992-on

5. HER MAJESTY’S SHIP CHALLENGER (1872-76)

6. R/V VEMA, Lamont-Doherty Geological ObservatoryTraversed well over a million nautical miles, easily holds the record..

7. SAILING SCHOOL VESSELSSV WESTWARD, Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MAW. Hoyt, Chief Scientist for Cruise W-156, Key West – Bermuda - Rum Cay - Key West, March-May of 1998

8. RV Glomar Explorer/Challenger, Howard Hughes Built to Recover Soviet Nuclear Submarine, later Explored Sea Floor for Manganese Nodules, and DSDP/JOI

9. J.O.I.D.E.S. Resolution, Joint Oceanographic Institutes for Deep Earth Studies

10. D/V CHIKYUIntegrated Ocean Drilling Program~700 ft. long, ~400 ft. tall above the waterline!

11. R/V ALVIN, U.S. Navy, NSF, Woods Hole Oceanographic

12. R.O.V. Jason & Argus, Remotely Operated Vehicles, Underwater ROBOTS, These Operated by Woods Hole

13. SEASAT, JPL Launched in 1978, 1st Oceanographic SatelliteTOPEX/POSEIDON, JPL Launched in 1992 (the Vema of Oceanographic Satellites)

14. GEOLOGICAL RESOURCES

15. CHEVRON CONSORTIUM JACK 2 WELL TEST, GULF OF MEXICO O.C.S. • Set 6+ World Records • 7,000 ft water depth • 21,175 ft sub-bottom drilling • Reserves est. 9-15 Billion Barrels • 50% increase in US reserves?? • Biggest thing since Prudhoe Bay • At best, two years of oil for U. S., 176 days for world demand

16. U.S. Outer Continental Shelf Oil & Condensate ProductionNOTE: Assume we take Jack 2 field at 500 MMbbls/yr for 20 years.

17. GEOLOGICAL RESOURCES, ADDING 500 MMbbls/yr. for the next 20 years…

18. Declining Offshore Gas Production

19. O.C.S. Natural Gas Production—Falling Rapidly. Will Jack 2 Bring it Back Up??

20. Manganese Nodules, Also Called Polymetallic Nodules • Manganese Oxides around a core of existing material • Metal content ~33%-45% • In all world’s oceans, mostly in abyssal depths, 4-6 km • About 500 billion tons, total in world’s oceans

21. Nodules, Crusts and Metal Prices: • Until metal market prices for manganese, nickel, copper, iron, cobalt and aluminum spike, land reserves will continue to be used… • U. N. Law of the Sea requires nodules extracted from international waters (more than 200 nautical miles offshore) to be taxed, etc. • Supplies of nodules would net ~200 billion tons of metal, but are not renewable • Nodules have ~6 yr. supply of nickel, but for cobalt, we have 100s of years’ supply • Thermal vent massive sulphide and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts

22. Geothermal Heat from Mid-Ocean Ridge Vents and Hotspots • Vent fluids as hot as 350° C to 400° C • Volume of hot water vast, but unknown • Renewable heat source • Plumbing of vents is rapidly-changing! • Within decades (?), whole systems shut down and new ones open up • Opportunities for thermal energy conversion good, but extreme environment and distances present formidable practical challenges • No large scale demonstrations

23. OCEAN GEOLOGICAL RESOURCES: SUMMARY OF SUSTAINABILITY • PROMISING O.C.S. DISCOVERIES OF OIL, in particular AND GAS, maybe. (ALL NONRENEWABLE, UNSUSTAINABLE) • MANGANESE NODULES AND CRUSTS HAVE LOTS OF METAL, BUT PRICES WILL HAVE TO GO WAY UP. (HUNDREDS OF YEAR SUPPLY IN SOME METALS, UNSTAINABLE) • GEOTHERMAL VENTS IN OCEAN VAST AND HOT, BUT TECHNICAL CHALLENGES ABOUND (SUSTAINABLE)

24. BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES

25. Commercial Fisheries Decline World Catch Peaked 1996-2000 @86-96 million tons (estimates) Increased Effort/Lower Yield The Hungry Ocean Fish “Ranching” Operations Large and Growing Farmed Salmon Gene Pool Wiping Out Wild Salmon Gene Pool Chilean, Canadian, Norwegian salmon FISHERIES AND FISH FARMING

26. Wild Catch Plateaus circa 1996-2000; Now Declining… Increase in Farm-Raised Catch Keeps Totals Going Upward WILD CATCH VS. WILD + FARMED

27. Coral Reefs and Associated Products: Limestone and Aquarium Fish (Blasting, Dredging, and Cyanide Poisoning)

28. Blasted reef of rubbelized staghorn coral Looks almost exactly like fossil reef to right 8700 yrs. B. P. drowned reef at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef Largest Ecosystem on Earth, Ever (?) Coral Reefs are not Protected Worldwide: Less than 0.1% of Coral Reefs are within Marine Protected Areas (no Take, no Poaching)

29. Healthy Corals with normal seawater temperatures Bleached Corals due to elevated temperatures Excess Nutrient Loading causes Algal Growth High Water Temperatures and High Carbon Levels (mostly sugars) Algae produces sugars which feed coral-suffocating bacteria NOTE: In some years, up to 90% of coral reefs are affected by these maladies!

30. Ocean Biological Resources: Summary of Sustainability • Wild Fisheries Catch in Decline and Unlikely to Recover under Pressures (unsustainable??) • Fish Ranching, Farming, and Mariculture more than Making up for the Decline (sustainable) • Modern Coral Reefs in Precipitous Decline, and Going the way of Rudistids (extinct Cretaceous Reef-Formers)??? (unsustainable??)

31. CHEMICAL RESOURCES • Salts such as NaCl Halite; KCl Sylvite; MgSO4 Fossil Salts vs. Sea Salts • Hydrogen, Helium, Boron, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide • Seawater a source of fresh water (desalination), hydrogen for fuel cells (??), and the ocean could be a place to sequester excess atmospehric carbon dioxide (eventually to ocean sediments).

32. Ocean Chemical Resources: Summary of Sustainability • Virtually all chemical resources are in such high amounts in the ocean that they are practically limitless (sustainable). • The problem is extraction in an economical fashion (e.g., I could give you a cubic mile of seawater and make you all instant millionaires on the contained GOLD alone). (sustainable) • Milk of Magnesia and many other chemical products are used abundantly (sustainable).

33. Physical Resources: Ocean Motion and Commotion • Wave Energy Extraction Devices • Moderate Capital Cost • Moderate Maintenance Cost • Experimental… • Tidal Power Devices = DAMS with Turbines • High Capital Cost • Moderate Maintenance • Dependable…

34. Moving ocean water currents can generate vast amounts of power Straits, Western Boundary Currents Ocean Thermal Power Conversion Depends on the Difference between Surface and Deep Temperatures Ocean Currents & Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (O.T.E.C.)

35. Ocean Physical Resources: Summary of Sustainability • Virtually limitless supply of solar-induced winds, waves, tides, and currents. • For Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Power Plants, the best place is west-central Pacific, but with high efficiency, almost anyplace would do. • Wave power generators like Del Buoy are the best proven technology.

36. CONCLUSIONS: OCEAN RESOURCES • Geological Resources are finite, except for geothermal heat • Biological Resources are in serious decline in the oceans, but should be renewable if we can let stocks recover • Chemical Resources are practically infinite, for human purposes • Physical Resources are practically infinite, for human purposes