The Economist Intelligence Unit (2015)
Our economic relationship with the ocean is once again evolving in important ways. As asetting for global trade and commerce, andas a significant source of food and energy, theocean’s contribution is already important. Thiscentury, it is likely to become an economic force.The drivers are many and varied, but have theirorigins in our growing familiarity with the oceanenvironment; new technologies that make itfeasible and economically viable to tap oceanresources; longer-term growth and demographictrends fuelling; the search for food security andfor alternative sources of minerals and energy; seaborne trade and rapid coastal urbanisation,among others.