{"id":40077153,"date":"2020-02-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/china-dialogue-ocean-staging.darkbluehq.com\/uncategorized\/13128-blue-acceleration-competition-ocean-resources\/"},"modified":"2022-03-14T21:53:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T16:23:23","slug":"13128-blue-acceleration-competition-ocean-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/ocean\/13128-blue-acceleration-competition-ocean-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blue acceleration\u2019: the mounting competition for ocean resources"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Human demands on the ocean are growing more intense and more varied. Scientists say that could lead to unpredictable consequences including military conflict and economic and ecological collapses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A multitude of interest groups is laying claim to the resources of the ocean, from exploring the seabed for minerals, to installing wind turbines, dispatching cruise ships and laying submarine cables. While some claimants can work alongside each other \u2013 and there may even be synergies \u2013 others are destined to clash, says a team from the Stockholm Resilience Centre in Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientists have dubbed this rush the \u201cblue acceleration\u201d. They say that regulation is struggling to keep up with the explosion of activity which has surged from small beginnings just 30 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, a researcher in sustainability science, led the work, examining 18 different ocean demands and finding that many have grown exponentially. The findings were published last month in the journal One Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human demands on the oceans are increasing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Rising demand for fresh drinking and irrigation water, for example, means there are now 16,000 desalination plants worldwide, which transform 65 million cubic metres of seawater per day, with rapid growth predicted for floating plants. They suck in and kill small marine life and discharge warm, highly salty water<\/a> that can disrupt coastal ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are more than 1.3 million km of undersea telecommunications cables and more than 100,000km of seabed pipelines carrying gas, oil, water or sewage. These are innocuous unless they leak after damage from anchors or storms, but they are incompatible with some other seabed activities, such as dredging for sand, said Jouffray.<\/p>\n

Demand for fish \u2013 wild and farmed \u2013 is soaring worldwide, and is projected to reach 154 million tons by 2030<\/a>. There is also the US$385 billion nutraceutical market \u2013 which, for example, exploits the small crustacean, krill<\/a>, for omega-3 fatty acids. Millions of marine organisms are used each year for home decorations, jewellery and aquaria. And bioprospecting for ingredients for medicines, cosmetics or other chemicals, is also increasing, said Jouffray.<\/p>\n

All these activities compete with the 9,000 offshore oil and gas platforms worldwide and the exploration of the seabed for metal ores: more than 1.4 million square kilometres of international waters have been parcelled out in exploration contracts, with Chinese companies holding more mining claims in the high seas<\/a> that lie beyond national jurisdiction than any other nation.<\/p>\n

Mineral deposits in the global ocean<\/h3>\n \n\t
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\n\t\t\t\tAn interactive map showing what could be mined and where\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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