The last Resource

RECENT HISTORY RECORDS many a military struggle between nations for dominance of parts or the whole of an océan and yet, curiously enough, these same oceans represent one of man’s greatest hopes for Pearce and prosperity. They are the lastgreat natural resource available on the Earth. Within the oceans are found vital supplies of protein-rich Food, an abondance of minerals, a potential source of fresh water and a place for recreation. The shallow continental shelves alone provide a new territory equal in area to the surface of the Moon but with the added advantage of being much more accessible. The pace of exploitation of these Under water territories has increased dramatically over the past decade spurred on by advances in technology and a growing awareness through oceanographic research of what ‘inner space’ holds in store for man. This book attempts to capture the mood of this expansion in marineactivity and présents in an understandablway a ‘balance sheet’ of the ocean resource. The author has resisted the temptation to talk in terms of distant futur istic (and often doubtful) developments, preferring instead to dwell on what mankind can realistically expect to gain from the oceans._ The Last Resource is written specially for the general public: the people who will benet nally from exploitation of the oceans. At the same time, Tony Loftas has presented some of the out standing issues linked with the oceans, including those surrounding their military uses. ln particular he looks at theproblem of ensuring that the oceans will benet mankind generally and not just those people for tunate enough to live in the technologically advanced countries of the world.