Comunidad del pacífico en perspectiva - Volumen 2

OCEAN RESOURCES AND OCEAN TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PACIFIC John E. Bardach and John Craven l. INTRODUCTlON During the last three decades, political, economic, and resources developments have contributed to the rise of the Pacific Ocean to rival and even to surpass the Atlantic in global importance. The industrial growth of Japan, the vigorous entry of Australia and New Zealand into the world food and minerals markets, the more recent changes in the policy oí China, the gaining oí independence of pl'evious colonial nations, the discovel'ies oí oil and gas on island shelves and in other locations of the Pacific rim, and the develop– ment of Pacific fisheries are íllustrations of the factors that caused this rise. Ocean resources will gain further in importance, as will new ocean technologies, greatly to enhance reliance of nations on the oceans for their future development. Imaginative use of these resources and technologies could mold the relations of peoples and nations in the Pacific into patterns different from those that prevail today. In this article, resources are defined as substances 01' proces– ses that are or can be used for the socioeconomic betterment of man; thus physical and social technologies related to l'esource uses are implicitly included. Some of these may well jointly become instrumental in fostering the rise of a tropical coastal regíon and island civilization to rival the present dominant temperate zone, continental one. This still speculative hypothesis is best set forth by developing a numbel' of propositions relating to energy and raw materials, to the oceans' role in recycling wastes, to communi– cation and transportation as well as to food, nutritíon, and disease. One may add that ir a shift to a more tropical preponderance in human affairs is to take place. it will first take place in the Pacific because of the many islands and island groups in this lal'gest of the world's oceans which play an important role in the production of ocean l'esources and the amenities which the oceans can provide. 134