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Harvesting of marine resources - Coggle Diagram
Harvesting of marine resources
Introduction
Humans been harvesting ocean products, living and non-living for thousands of years, records show fishing gear one of oldest technologies.
Initially, harvesting of slow moving fish took place alongside the gathering of plants, mussels, worms and crustaceans, these commodities supplied resources for the fishers and their communities for thousands of years.
Amounts gathered and harvesting methods did not compromise on future harvesters of ocean resources, over time harvesting of fish stocks increased enormously and in some instances such as Atlantic cod led t levels of exploitation and endangering the species almost to extinction
South African images of the total catch harvested by fishers in the past illustrate that fish were much larger, more plentiful and more diverse than at present.
Design and innovation of highly industrialised mechanisms have transformed and enabled capture methods to ‘pull in’ large volumes of seafood, including fast- moving fish.
Since industrialisation of harvesting methods seafood become enormous food trade industry with fish becoming staple food for large portion of humans living inland and away from coast, 1988 exploitations of fisheries peaked.
Ocean utilisation
There are other aspects to using ocean resources that must also be considered. These include:
-The ocean is the most used transportation medium on the planet.
-The ocean is the most sought-after recreation destination.
-The ocean contains Earth's most valued economic natural resource, namely fossil fuels.
-Increased technology has allowed for enormous levels of mining of sand, gravel and minerals.
Oil and natural gas have the highest monetary value of all the marine resources harvested, followed by marine sediment and mining, then seafood and renewable energy.
Categories of ocean resources
Living resources
Include seafood consumed by humans and used as animals feed:
-Fish, trawling and line fishing.
-Shellfish
-Seaweeds
Marine sediment and fossil fuel
-Phosphates to be used as fertilisers.
-Sands, gravels (used for construction)
-Diamond dredging
-Deep sea minerals including Copper, Iron, Manganese, Nickel and Cobalt
-significant volumes of salt including Table Salt (NaCl); Gypsum (CaSO4); Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)
-Fossil fuels such as crude oil and gas
Desalination
Removal of salt from seawater to produce drinkable water suitable for human consumption by applying reverse osmosis through high-pressure membranes.
Energy generation
Motion energy – waves, currents, tides and wind
-Heat energy – for example from thermal vents which is used to produce electricity. Marine resources are categorised further into extractive and non-extractive resources. the following are
non-extractive:
-Wind farms and tidal or wave energy
-Transport
-Marine tourism
Economics of harvesting Marine Resources
Fundamental principle of economics is supply and demand. refers to the supply of goods and services and the demand by those wanting to consume refers to the
supply of goods and services and the demand by those wanting to consume or use such goods and services.
Prices determined by balance between supply and demand, increase in the volume of purchases or the number of buyers shows an increase in demand. An increase in the volume of supply or the number of suppliers shows an increase in
supply. High supply of goods will result in lower price.
Point where demand exceeds supply an imbalance occurs, prices driven up. Between 1900 and 1999 human population grew 400%