San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-25

creased population OF the earth VIII
REQUIRE more food than the surface of the
earth can raise.
When all the land has been farmed to
its fullest capacity, where is man to turn
for an additional food supply? Science
answers that the oceans offer the great
est farming opportunity of all. The
oceans cover more than three-fourths of
the surface of our globe. But that is not
ALL The oceans contain rich pastures of
marine vegetable growth along the bot
tom of the sea, and mile after mile of
water above the marine meadows can be
made to yield countless millions of tons
of fish.
While the land farmer can only use the
surface of his land. the ocean farmer can
use the ocean bottom and can farm in
many horizontal layers, one above the
other. like flats in an apartment house.
Already science is turning its attention
to the vast farming possibilities of the
great oceans. Last year, along the east
and west shores of the United States, We
took three billion pounds of fish from the
neighboring waters of the United States.
If all these fish had been nodded into one
gigantic fish it would have measured
1850 feet in length-more than eight
city blocks, huge marine food monster
which would have reached from the Bat
terry in New York to the Woodwork
building.
This fish would have more than fillei
Broadway, from side to side, by nearly
200 feet, and its back would have reached
far over the roofs of most of the
buildings.
Already something is being done in
very small way to get food supplies from
the wild seaweejs and marine growthS
along the ocean bottom. But it is toward
a systematic and comprehensive farming
of the ocean on a wholesale scale that
modern scientists are now giving at
tention.
The pastures of the sea are enormously
rich in a microscopic plant life which Is
the fundamental source of food supply
for all the animals that live in the ocean.
Upon these tiny plants feed minute ami
malcules; the latter in turn are eaten by
bigger ones, and so on up to the hugest
creatures. such as sharks sixty feet long
and whales that weigh thirty tons.
The area of Rhode Island is LOU
square miles. If it were wholly planted
in grass. and produced as much hay per
acre as an average meadow, 1t would
Weld only enough of the latter to be
equivalent to what is required for the
support of twenty-one hundred and nifty
whales of the size above mentioned.
All the surface waters of the ocean to
depth of several hundred feet are crowded
with plants so small as to be invisible to
the eve. In the Arctic and Antarctic they
are so abundant at times as to color the
water for miles, giving it a slight but
perceptibly Smooth" feeling. Among the
animals that feed upon these plants are
crustaceans called "copepods," which are
sometimes found in banks mile thick:
When il is considered that thousands OF
these copepods would find ample room in
a pint of water, faint conception OF their
abundance may be formed.
On land plants grow under disad-
vantage. comparatively speaking. Water
is scanty. The minerals they require as
food is slowly supplied as the rains dis
solve them in the soil. Space being Inn
tied, they are crowded, and must compete
for the small amount of food and water
obtainable. For a great part Of each
year their growth is arrested by drought
or cold.
In the ocean il is different. There is
plenty of room, the temperature is fairly
uniform. and each little plant is bathed
on all sides by water which contains its
mineral fool in solution.
Thus il comes about that the surface
LAYERS of the sea are in effect thin veg
etable soup. Drifting freely about, the
microscopic plants occupy a stratum
reaching maximum of $50 feet in thick
ness in the clearest waters of tropical
seas. but decreasing to a much less thick
ness nOrthward and southwark, where
there il less light to sustain their growth.
The animals that feed upon them form the
food of other animals that live deeper
down. in perpetual shade, and these again
furnish food for other animals that live
still further down. in everlasting darkness.
Perhaps from what has here been sail,
il will be understood why the Government
exploring expedition that is soon TO start
out to make an inventory Of the resources
Of the sea will pay special attention TO
study Of the plant life which supports
directly or indirectly all the fishes, all the
molusks, all the crustaceans. and every
other form Of animal life therein con
tanned. 1t will begin its stock-taking oper-
ations in the Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean.
A navy cruiser, the Rainbow, will be
employed, but all Of Uncle Sans scien-
tific bureaus, as well as the Smithsonian
Institution, will send experts along. 1t
will be called the Maury Oceanographic
Expedition, in honor Of Matthew F.
Al ,.., l., 81 fi,.g. ip4.