Critically evaluate the various resources of the oceans which can be harnessed to meet the resource crisis in the world.

Covering about 71 per cent of the earth, the oceans are humanity’s last large resource frontier and are increasingly invoked as the answer to food, mineral, energy and water scarcity.

Resources that can be harnessed

• Biotic: marine fisheries and mariculture supply vital protein to billions; seaweed and marine biotechnology yield pharmaceuticals and industrial products.
• Minerals: polymetallic nodules rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper, cobalt-rich crusts and seafloor massive sulphides; offshore placers and salt. India holds an ISA exploration contract in the Central Indian Ocean Basin and is pursuing the Deep Ocean Mission with the Samudrayaan submersible.
• Energy: offshore oil and gas (Persian Gulf, Bombay High) and marine renewables — offshore wind, tidal, wave and OTEC.
• Freshwater: desalination already sustains arid West Asia and Chennai’s supply.

Critical evaluation

• Over a third of assessed fish stocks are already overexploited (FAO), so the biotic cushion is shrinking.
• Deep-sea mining threatens poorly understood ecosystems; extraction costs remain prohibitive and the ISA’s mining code is still unfinished.
• Tidal and OTEC power are site-specific and expensive; desalination is energy-intensive and generates brine pollution.
• Warming, acidification and plastic pollution are degrading the resource base itself.

The oceans can cushion the world’s resource crisis, but only within a precautionary, sustainable blue-economy framework — not through open-ended extraction.