Did you know the largest and the deepest oceans in the world? Yup, the answer is the Pacific Ocean. This ocean even covers approximately one-third of the surface of the earth with an area of 179.7 million km². Its length is about 15,500 km from the Bering Sea in the Arctic to the ice boundary in the Ross Sea in the Antarctic in the south.
As for the large of the Pacific Ocean reaches east-west width at about 5 degrees U latitude, where it extends about 19,800 km from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia.
The earth’s lowest point-the Mariana Trench-is in the Pacific Ocean. This ocean lies between Asia and Australia to the west, America to the east, Antarctica to the south and the Arctic Ocean to the north. The Pacific Ocean contains about 25,000 islands, the majority of which lie south of the equator.
The Pacific is a major contributor to the world. The strategic position of Pacific is seen in some indicators of trade and industry. There are so many strategic importance of Pacific ocean that can be noticed, they are:
- Fishery industry
The fishery industry, also called fishing industry, is the industry or activity of catching, cultivating, processing, preserving, storing, distributing and marketing fish products. The Pacific ocean has a great potential to be served as a fishing industry which may develop the economic value from the ocean. The fishery of Pacific ocean includes two main categories, they are oceanic, coastal or inshore.
Oceanic fishery includes endangered tuna species and all endangered animals in the ocean of Pacific. Meanwhile coastal or inshore fishery is the small-scale or subsistence commercial fishing or fishing practices that utilize traditional fishing methods such as the use of fishing rods, bows and arrows, harpoon, throwing nets, spears, and so on.
2. Shipping
The Pacific ocean links many places around the world. So, the Pacific ocean is not as a separator, but as a unifier of the nation through the channels of communication and easy transportation. Through the route of the Pacific ocean, most of the needs of many nations are able to be transported or exported to the overseas. Therefore, it can bring the economic importance of the Pacific ocean.
3. Tourism Sector
Tourism is a mainstay sector in supporting the importance of the ocean to economic development national and tourism have a very important role in the growth of the national economy because tourism can produce foreign exchange, creating jobs and business opportunities.
The territorial sea, coastal, and small islands around the Pacific ocean have an attraction for tourism development. In utilizing these resources as tourism activities, is very important to keep the importance of maintaining the ocean ecosystem resources so that the impacts on tourism activities do not damage the ecosystem and its environment including its resources.
4. Mining Area
The Pacific ocean is also a potential mining area. As known, one of the most important mining products produced from the ocean is oil and natural gas. In addition, mining is also known as a producer of tin and iron sand, in addition to bauxite and also granite. A lot of mine products that can be extracted from the ocean that bring great benefits for the welfare of humanity in the earth.
5. Source of Food
The Pacific ocean also serves as a source of food, especially animal protein in the form of fish and other marine products. Most of the coastal people depend on seafood as a fisherman. Every day they go fishing after that the results they sell to meet the needs of his life. Fish is one of the most useful foods for humans because it contains animal protein is very high compared with other protein sources.
6. Medicine Industry
The Pacific ocean is also very famous for the natural wealth of vegetable and animal that can be used as raw material for making medicines (herbs).Extracts from various types of plants and animals are very beneficial to the human body, both to treat and to prevent various diseases.
A simple example currently under development is the albumin extract from cork fish that can be used to accelerate the healing process of people who require light or heavy surgery. The deep sea water as the Pacific ocean is now also popularly used as a mineral water that can refresh the human body.
7. Cosmetic Industry
There are so many raw materials that can be used in Cosmetic industry, including the natural resources from the Pacific ocean. One of the plants that live in the Pacific Ocean which can be utilized in Medicine Industry is algae.
The primary metabolite compounds in question are agar, carrageenan, and alginate. In the cosmetics industry, the use of agar, carrageenan, and alginate is usually used for cream soap products, liquid soaps, shampoos, lotions, lip coloring toothpaste and skin care products such as hand body lotions and desserts and hair lotions.
8. Mariculture
Mariculture is also included as one of the economic factors in Pacific ocean. Several invertebrates such as the pearl oyster, penaeid shrimps, prawns, giant clams, seaweed and coral that have the economic value have been cultured by the people who lived in the Pacific island.
9. Habitation
The Pacific ocean which has about 25,000 islands is a strategic place to be a place to live. Especially, for the people who enjoy the island life which is calm, peaceful, and of course beautiful because of the sea view that is around it. Now, the islands of Pacific are sometimes called Oceania and are traditionally classified into three island clusters: Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian.
10. Study Research
The strategic importance of pacific ocean is used as the material of study research. The Pacific ocean has abundant natural wealth so there will be no end of the researchers to uncover the mystery contained therein. Starting from animals, plants, rocks, and so forth.
Others
The strategic importance of pacific ocean also includes:
- As the source of energy
- Source of clean water
- As crude oil producers.
- As the power plants
Well, those all about the strategic importance of pacific ocean that you should know. Hopefully, this will be useful for all of you. Thanks for reading 🙂