Main human uses of ocean areas and resources, impacts, and multiple scales of governance - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 34

that submarine cables carry in excess of US$10 trillion in transactions per day and carry
over 97% of intercontinental data traffic due to their lower cost in comparison with satellite
communication (APEC, 2012 ) .
Scientific research is another common use of the ocean, with more work being under-
taken in the easier-to-access nearshore areas. In the deep sea, scientific research is an ex-
pensive undertaking that requires not only sophisticated research vessels, but also special-
ized equipment, such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and submersibles. While there
is no systematic information on tracking research vessels worldwide, some publicly avail-
able databases are seeking to address this information gap. The website www.sailwx.info ,
hosted by a consortium of several research and operational oceanographic and meteorolo-
gical facilities, allows live tracking of ships worldwide. While the database can be used to
link to physical information about the ship, it does not provide information about the type
of research activities that are being undertaken.
A related ocean use is biological prospecting, which is discussed in greater detail in
Chapter 9 . It should be noted, though, that biological prospecting is made feasible by the
great potential for discovery in the ocean, with its diversity of habitats, species, and genera.
The species diversity alone is estimated to be at around 5 to 10 million, which represents a
huge genetic reservoir with great potential for discovery of products useful to humankind,
such as medicines and enzymes.
Deep-sea habitats are the largest reservoirs of biomass and non-renewable resources
(e.g. gas hydrates and minerals) (Danovaro et al ., 2008 ) . Potential mineral resources in
the deep sea include manganese nodules, cobalt-rich crusts, polymetallic sulphides, and
phosphorites (Roberts et al ., 2005 ; van den Hove and Moreau, 2007 ), and there is also
some speculation about future mining of frozen methane gas in the deep ocean (Glover
and Smith, 2003 ) , although this proposition is not without hazards, which include climate
change impacts. It is likely that there will be increasing interest in extracting these deep-sea
resources as technologies improve and minerals and other resources available on land are
depleted.