How the Ocean Affects our Everyday Lives

Just as we have been affecting the deep ocean environment, so the deep ocean has a variety of impacts on our everyday lives.

In this video, Dr Jon Copley introduces just a few of the spin-off benefits coming from ocean exploration.

Everyday Uses of the Ocean and its Resources

Explore the links below to learn more about everyday uses of the ocean and its resources, and some of the “spin offs” from exploring the oceans and marine life. You don’t need to read all of the links, but they are provided to show some of the many ways that the ocean is linked to our everyday lives.

Transport of Goods

• Explore this infographic and article summarising one year of global traffic by cargo ships and explore this live map of marine traffic
• Look back in time at an animated century of ocean shipping from 1750 to 1850
• See the evolution of container ships since the 1950s

Communication Cables

• This map shows the full extent of the undersea cable network. [Zoom in, out and around the map or click on the navigation links on the right under ‘submarine cables’ to explore it].
• Watch a video showing how undersea cables are laid

Hydrocarbons

• Read this study describing the aftermath of the Deep Water Horizon event and its impact on deep sea sediments
• Read this article about oil and gas exploration in the Arctic Ocean

Fisheries

• Read this article about the over-exploitation of one species of deep-sea fish
• Read an article about “sea slaves” in fishing that supplies pet food and livestock feed

“Spin-Offs” From Exploring the Oceans

• Read a news report about a new antibiotic that attacks MRSA, found in an ocean microbe.
• Find out how a protein discovered in deep-sea fish is used to produce healthier ice cream.
• Find out how the glass skeleton of a deep-sea sponge could lead to better fibre-optic cables for telecommunications in the future.
• Find out how the claw of the mantis shrimp may lead to stronger yet lighter composite materials for aircraft.
• Read about the remarkable shell of the “scaly-foot snail” from deep-sea vents, which may inspire tough new materials for applications from body armor to scratch-free paint.