Study sheet: Seas and Oceans in Globalization

📋 Course Outline

1. Maritime Space and Globalization
2. Marine Resources and Their Uses
3. Fisheries and Aquaculture Pressures
4. Maritime Tourism and Landscapes
5. Undersea Cables and Maritime Information
6. Maritime Routes and Global Hubs
7. Maritime Trade and Globalization

📖 1. Maritime Space and Globalization

📝 Essential Points

• Seas and oceans cover 71% of the Earth's surface and contribute to globalization through resource exploitation and international flows.

💡 Memory Hook

71% of the globe covered by water → resources, flows, and globalization

📖 2. Marine Resources and Their Uses

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Offshore : refers to activities carried out at sea, excluding fishing and maritime transport, especially the exploitation of offshore hydrocarbon deposits and wind turbines.
• Polymetallic nodules : rocky concretions containing highly sought-after metals such as copper, nickel, and cobalt, located several thousand meters deep on the ocean floor.

★ Must-know

• Offshore hydrocarbons account for 30% of world production, notably in the Gulf of Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the South China Sea.

Further detail

• The main locations of maritime resources are: fishing near major population centers, aquaculture mainly in Southeast Asia, polymetallic nodules mainly in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, hydrocarbons along the eastern coasts of the Americas and in Southwest Asia, offshore wind farms in China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium

💡 Memory Hook

Renewable wind and living resources contrast with finite hydrocarbons and polymetallic nodules

📖 3. Fisheries and Aquaculture Pressures

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Halieutic resources : fishing resources and, more broadly, living resources and aquatic environments also exploited through aquaculture.
• Overfishing : occurs when fishing prevents living organisms from reproducing.
• Aquaculture : the industrial farming of fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and algae in marine or river waters.

★ Must-know

• In 2020, halieutic resources fed 1 billion people, and consumption was twice as high as in the 1960s.

• Marine fishing produces 78 million tonnes per year and includes both artisanal and industrial fishing using nets or lines.

Further detail

• China, Norway, and Vietnam are major aquaculture and salmon-exporting countries supplying Europe, with 3 million tonnes of salmon mentioned in the course.

💡 Memory Hook

Overfishing and pollution → weakened marine resources → aquaculture development

📖 4. Maritime Tourism and Landscapes

★ Must-know

• Cruise tourism carried 28 million travelers in 2019, and Miami was the world's leading cruise port.

Further detail

• The Mediterranean Sea hosts most cruises, while cruise tourism is also developing in the Arctic, Antarctic, and northern South China Sea.

• Cruises in the Arctic attract visitors to observe icebergs but contribute to the disappearance of these landscapes.

💡 Memory Hook

Tourism reveals maritime landscapes while cruise development can contribute to their degradation

📖 5. Undersea Cables and Maritime Information

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Landlocked country : a country without a coastline or direct access to the sea, such as Switzerland or Lesotho.

★ Must-know

• Undersea cables connect continents and securely carry information, including internet communications, supporting financial development and industrial navigation.

Further detail

• In the nineteenth century, undersea cables linked Europe to North America and the United States.

📌 Undersea cables can be damaged by erosion, submarine eruptions, and marine currents, or deliberately sabotaged during conflicts.

📌 Control of undersea cables can enable communication to be blocked, information to be monitored, and espionage or wiretapping to occur.

💡 Memory Hook

A web of cables on the ocean floor linking continents and carrying global communications

📖 6. Maritime Routes and Global Hubs

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Maritime façade : a developed and attractive coastline that concentrates several ports and connects a continental hinterland to the rest of the world.

★ Must-know

• The three main maritime routes are:
  • the Pacific route between the Americas and Asia
  • the Indian Ocean route between Asia and the Suez Canal
  • the Atlantic route between the Americas and Europe

Further detail

• The main maritime façades are located in :

  • Southwest Asia

  • West Africa

  • Western Europe

  • North America on both its western

  • eastern coasts

• A container is a standardized metal box measuring 20 or 40 feet, equivalent to 6 or 12 meters in length.

💡 Memory Hook

Route → façade → hub → secondary ports

📖 7. Maritime Trade and Globalization

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Globalization : the process of increasing international exchanges by sea, accelerated since the 1970s by lower maritime transport costs and shorter transport times.

★ Must-know

• In 2023, maritime trade represented approximately 90% of world trade.

• The main maritime routes form an international maritime highway linking the principal economic centers, especially around the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and North Atlantic.

• In 2023, 75% of maritime exchanges took place between European, Asian, and North American façades.

• A hub concentrates international maritime traffic in a principal port before redistributing it to secondary ports through large terminals operated by major shipping companies.

Further detail

• Specialized maritime routes transport hydrocarbons from the Middle East and the Gulf of Guinea and agricultural products from Europe and the Americas.

• Examples of major maritime hubs are Ningbo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tianjin in Asia, while Rotterdam is the principal port of the Northern Range and was the tenth-largest port worldwide by total traffic in 2023.

💡 Memory Hook

Lower transport costs and times → expanding maritime trade → accelerated globalization

📊 Synthesis Tables

Main Maritime Resources and Locations

Resource	Main locations	Use or characteristic
Fishing	Near major population centers, especially East Asia and Western Europe	Capture of aquatic resources
Aquaculture	Southeast Asia, especially China	Farming of aquatic organisms
Polymetallic nodules	Mainly Pacific and Atlantic Oceans	Copper, nickel, and cobalt deposits
Hydrocarbons	Eastern coasts of the Americas and Southwest Asia	30% of world production is offshore
Offshore wind	China and Northern European countries	Renewable energy

Maritime Routes and Hubs

Element	Role	Examples
Main routes	Link major economic centers	Pacific, Indian Ocean, North Atlantic
Maritime façades	Concentrate ports and connect hinterlands to the world	Northern Range, Chinese façades, U.S. façades
Hubs	Redistribute traffic from principal to secondary ports	Shanghai, Singapore, Rotterdam
Specialized routes	Carry specific commodities	Hydrocarbons from the Middle East and Gulf of Guinea