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Saturday 20 December 2014

Importance of Oceans in Human Life

The Ocean Currents have a decisive role in influencing the climate of the regions they flow through. In cold regions the warm currents protect the coasts along which they flow from the severe cold. Similarly, the cold currents reduce the heat of the hot regions they pass through and provide relief from the heat. The cold currents that flow from the polar and subpolar  regions, bring in a lot of plankton. Since this is the food of fish, we can find a lot of fish where these currents pass through. These areas have become important fishing centers of the world. Grand banks in Eastern New Foundland is an example of this.
All major sea routes take the advantage of ocean currents.Almost all the minerals found on land are also found in the sea. But man is not able to make use of all the resources that are found in the oceans because the coast of processing them is very high. Due to overuse of the resources of land, they are being exhausted. A number of minerals found on land now will soon disappear. Man will have to depend on oceans for minerals in the near future.
Fish is one of the important food of man. Almost 90 million tons of fish is being caught every year from different places the world over. Fishing is one of the oldest occupations in coastal area, whichever latitude it be in. Japan, Peru, China, Norway, Russia and Britain are the major fishing centers of the world.The need for drinking water is increasing day by day. With the increasing population, a large quantity of water is needed not only for drinking, but also for agriculture and other activities. We know that sea water is saline. If the salinity can be removed from sea water, we can use it as pure water. Many countries purify sea water for drinking and other purposes. The methods like sea water distillation and electro dialysis are resorted to remove the salinity of sea water. In the process of sea water distillation, the sea water is turned into water vapor using solar energy. The vaporised water is then condensed and fresh water is obtained. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Chile are some of the countries that do this. The process of removing salt from sea water using electricity is electro dialysis. In Kavarathi, the capital of Lakshadweep, this process is used to purify sea water. The fat from some types of fish is processed to obtain fish oil and fish capsules. Besides, oceanic flora and fauna are sources of several medicines. Antibiotics, Steroids, Vitamins and Tonics are commercially manufactured in large quantities from them.
Petroleum and natural gas are drilled from the ocean floors from different parts of the world. Petroleum is mined from different parts of the Oceans. Compared to the sea, land gets heated or cooled very fast. The unequal heating and cooling of land and ocean affects the climate of coastal regions considerably. The regions near oceans do not experience extremes of climate. But in regions which are not close to the ocean, summers are very hot and winters are very cold. The moist winds that blow from the sea during the day moderate the temperature on the land. Energy can be produced from sea waves, tides and ocean currents. Water activated turbines that rotate by the force of waves striking the shore, are installed in the sea near the shore. The waves rotate them and generate electricity. During high tide, when the water level rises, the water is collected in reservoirs. This water is used to rotate the turbines to produce electricity. Tides which have an average height of 5 meters are ideal to produce energy.




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