The world’s oceans, tomorrow’s Economic Promised Land?

A Marine ‘El Dorado’: a Substitute or an Addition to our Earthly Paradise?

The financial aspect that is underlined by the adjective ‘economic’ in ‘Exclusive Economic Zone’ (EEZ) is the cardinal notion of our current perception of the world’s oceans. But why was this word preferred above all others? Why do we not speak of ‘Exclusive Strategic Zones’ or of exclusively commercial or military ones? It is logical to expect that the sheer scale of the world’s oceans (360 million square kilometres, i.e. 71% of the Earth’s surface and 1,320 million cubic kilometres of water) implies an immense bounty of available resources, both living and inert. In this regard, the twentieth century was a fundamental step, for it was then that a source of energy first crossed the frontier between land and water: hydrocarbons.