OCEANIC RESOURCES (Ocean and Food Resources )

Ocean and Food Resources 

OCEANIC RESOURCES

 Nature has created three main divisions on our earth (Sthalamandal, hydrosphere and atmosphere).  In these three circles, nature has given us many valuable things free of cost.  When a man uses any of these things to fulfill his needs or to raise the social standard, he is called a resource.  According to Dr. Zimmerman, "Resource refers to the achievement of an objective, that purpose serves the individual needs and social goals."

 The vast ocean water is present on 71% of the Earth's area and only 29% is the site, this huge water table presents new challenges and resources for us.  The ocean has immense reserves of various things, but humans have not yet gained the technical ability to use them fully.  But with the increasing population of the world, the increasing needs of man and the rapid loss of terrestrial resources, it seems that in future man will have to depend to sea to a large extent for meeting his needs.  Many types of minerals, food items and sources of energy exist in the oceans.  In addition, the oceans affect our climate and provide the cheapest means of transportation.

  The sea also gives man two opportunities to get food.  One of them is Fishing and the other is Aquaculture.
1. Fishing - Many types of fauna and flora are produced in the ocean, which humans use as food.  It is estimated that 1,40,000 different types of organisms live in ocean waters.  Due to the explosion of population in the world and the fixed extent of production of terrestrial agriculture, the importance of ocean food resources increases day by day.  The most important food obtained from the sea is fish.  More than 30,000 types of fish are found in seawater but only a few of them are edible.  More important fish include herring, ronkery, cod, sardine, salmon, tuna, Haydock, mackerel, etc.  Seven to eight million tons of fish are caught every year from the sea, 90 to 95 percent of which is used as food.  Fish provides 10 percent of the total animal protein in human food.  Fishing is one of the oldest occupations of man and he has been eating fish for centuries.  But with the availability of new fishing equipment in the modern era, it has not become an important business.


Most of the fish are found on continental magnets up to a depth of about 100 fathoms as suitable environment for breeding and development is found here.  The major fishery regions of the world are the mid-latitudinal part of the Northern Hemisphere.  Four large areas are found here.  Whose names are as follows

1.The North- West Pacific Fishing Ground
2. The North-West Atlantic Fishing Ground
3.The North-East Pacific Fishing Ground
4. The North-East Pacific Fishing Ground

Apart from fish, other sea creatures like Mussels, Lobster, Mollusks.  Squard, Crastaceans, Oyster are also used as food by sages.
Apart from food items, oil, hair, leather, glue, fodder for animals and other useful items are obtained in many marine organisms.  The organisms providing them are hale, seal, sea cow, manatee etc.
Medicines are also made from some marine organisms and plants.
The biggest advantage of sea creatures is that their reproduction process is very fast.  For example, a fish lays thousands of eggs at a time.  This helps in using them in large quantities, some people consider it as an inexhaustible resource.  But in the last few years, there is a doubt about this belief.  The reason for this is that certain types of fish are caught over a certain limit.  It is estimated that more than 200 million tons of fish can be caught in the world.  If we catch more fish than this limit, then this resource will be exhausted soon.  Pollution of seawater also causes large amounts of fish loss.  Therefore, to conserve this invaluable ocean resource, we have to curb the over-fishing and pollution of sea water.
2. Aquaculture - Sea agriculture started four thousand years ago in those areas of Southern and East Asia which came under the influence of Chinese civilization.  Most marine agriculture is concerned with the production of flora and fauna in fresh water.  In 1400 AD, agricultural work started in the saline waters near the islands of Indonesia.  Products of this agriculture include finfish, shellfish, shellfish, oyster, mussel, crustacea, milkfish.  (Mikfish) and Seaweeds.  Two-thirds of the world's total marine agricultural production is of finfish and one-third of shellfish, vegetation and other commodities.  Milkfish and fisia are produced in saltwater.
Seaweeds grow in almost all the seas of the world, although most seaweeds are found only in temperate and warm lagoons.  It is used as a food in China, Taiwan and Japan.  It was initially used in western Europe as fertilizer and fodder for livestock.  But now it is used in medicine manufacturing, dairy industry, confectionary and textile industries.  When used as food, it provides abundant vitamins, iodides and calcium.  Around 800 companies from 26 developed countries of the world are engaged in marine agriculture.  On the basis of modern technology uplift, we can say that the future of marine agriculture is bright.