The oceans - the basis of life and places of longing. But above all, they are a gigantic economic factor. Today, more than two-thirds of the world's total freight volume is sent across the oceans.

45,000 merchant ships are on the oceans and transport almost seven billion tons of goods per year.

45,000 merchant ships are on the oceans and transport almost seven billion tons of goods per year.

Far, deep, mysterious. It is the origin of all life, a bridge between the worlds, an integral part of the myth of humanity, the place for dreams and longings - the sea. Around 71 percent of the earth - more than two-thirds - is covered by the sea. Water that humans existentially for life: Around 70 percent of the oxygen that the earth's inhabitants breathe is produced by the marine flora. In addition, the ocean - you don't think about it when you crouch on the beach and stare at the rolling waves without getting tired - and the oceans are a gigantic economic factor. As a food and energy source, trade, transport, and traffic route and through its rich natural resources. The world market turnover of the seas? 1.2 billion euros annually.

Because water transport is unbeatably cheap compared to other modes of transport, the oceans are the number one transport route worldwide. Around 45,000 merchant ships are currently sailing the oceans and transport almost seven billion tons of goods per year. Today, more than two-thirds of the world's total freight volume is sent across the oceans.

In the freight port of Singapore, the colorful containers are stacked in towers up to 25 meters high in some terminals. Around 30 million freight containers from all over the world are handled here every year. In the deserted, second-largest container port in the world and much praised for its efficiency, business is done as if by magic: Computer-controlled cranes maneuver the cargo, which weighs tons, into the cargo holds with centimeter precision and with almost obscure logistics. The whole earth is connected to one another via the oceans, and hardly any goal remains unattainable in the globalized world. It is not just the steadily growing number of goods transported this way that allows one to conclude: The sea is the economic area of ??the future.

The oceans have not always been so economically important. "Although people have preferred to settle and fish in inland waters and close to the coast since ancient times, they developed ships with which they could cross the oceans very late," says the German historian Martin Rheinheimer, who works at the University of Esbjerg (Denmark) explored the importance of the sea for certain regions. As far as we know today, people have only been moving in ships on the sea since 6000 BC, without any nautical knowledge or technical navigation aids such as a compass. "If the coast and its landmarks got out of sight, you could quickly get off course," says Rheinheimer. The adventures of Odysseus tell of that time. Homer lets the hero of his "Odyssey" wander around the Mediterranean for ten years after the victorious battle for Troy. Of course, it is not ignorance or even inability in the description that prevents Odysseus from returning from Asia Minor to Ithaca in the Peloponnese: In order to become a hero, he must defeat the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, and the anger of the Avoid Poseidon, god of the sea, and resist beguiling women like Circe and the Sirens.

Trade and fishing

Today the sea has become the most important freight transport route but has lost a lot of its importance in another branch of the economy: in fishing. For thousands of years, humans have been extracting the flaked raw material from the oceans - for a long time only in small quantities and exclusively for their own use. Finding good fishing grounds was based on chance and experience. Schools of fish could only be identified by individual fishermen in the 19th century using circling seabirds or schools of dolphins in the oceans. For hunting, people used hand-knotted nets, willow trap traps, and spears and harpoons made of wood and bone. It wasn't until the Middle Ages that fish became a real export hit: Herring - pickled in salt or dried - was a must in every Christian household on Friday.

In the age of industrial deep-sea fishing, more than two million ships around the world are now targeting mackerel, tuna, or sea bream with nets that are kilometers long and state-of-the-art technology such as echo sounders and satellites. “Today you can precisely locate and catch any fish,” says marine historian Rheinheimer. “If a swarm swims in the tracking beam of a trawler, it's done.” Too many swarms have swum in the tracking beams: According to the most recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2009, around 80 percent of the fish stocks are in the Oceans overfished or exploited to the limit. The north-west Atlantic, the west Indian Ocean and the north-west of the Pacific are hardest hit.

When Christopher Columbus set sail from Huelva (Spain) on the three-master “Santa Maria” at the end of the 15th century, the problem did not yet exist. Fish was the only fresh food that the explorer and his fleet could feed on in search of a western route to India. Compared to his ancestors, the Italian navigator was already well equipped for an ocean crossing on behalf of the Spanish crown: he had geographical knowledge, could read maps, and had a compass on board when he set out on August 3, 1492. On this and three other voyages Columbus discovered various Caribbean islands, which he mistakenly believed to be East Asia.

Columbus and sea trading

In addition to Columbus' spirit of discovery, Spain's economic interests were the leitmotif for his great journeys. The European trading powers Spain and Portugal had been looking for ways to transport luxury goods such as silk and spices by sea from India and China to Europe since the mid-14th century. With the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, which lay between Asia and Europe, the formerly free trade route via Byzantium and Anatolia to the east was cut off. The Turks demanded high tariffs for the use of the transport routes now on their territory - costs that the Western Europeans did not want to pay.

Columbus' journey towards the “New World” marks the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern age not only in terms of cultural history, but also economically. In the centuries that followed, other European nations such as Spain, England, and the Netherlands also sent their captains on exploratory tours out to sea - always driven by the hope that they would bring home valuable cargo. Not all voyages of the great explorers came to a happy end. This is what happened to the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, whose fleet circumnavigated the world for the first time in human history in the 16th century. The captain was killed on the voyage in fighting with locals on the Pacific island of Mactan. Magellan's ships returned to the Spanish port of departure after almost three years - with 18 emaciated men -

With their voyages, seafarers like Magellan and Columbus laid the foundation for modern merchant shipping. Tall ships shaped the maritime trade routes as a means of transport for several centuries until they were displaced by steamships independent of the wind in the middle of the 19th century. The ships have loaded spices, precious stones, china, and tea, but also saltpeter, ores, and grain. Finally, the motorization of ships makes it possible to transport perishable goods by sea over long distances.

Sea trade and major economic regions

Today, trade between the world's major economic regions such as East and Southeast Asia or North America and Asia is mainly carried out with container ships and tankers - almost a third of sea-bound world trade is accounted for by the transport of crude oil.

But not only the industrial nations around the globe are targeting the raw material, but also pirates. They know about the value of the valuable cargo and try to take control of the ships in order to extort ransom from the shipping companies for the crew. Merchant ships around the world report armed robberies almost every day. The sea area in the Horn of Africa, the Strait of Malacca in the Indian Ocean, the West African coast, and the Caribbean are particularly hard hit. “Piracy is not a new phenomenon,” explains Captain Wilhelm Mertens from the Association of German Captains and Ship Officers (VDKS). "However, it has reached a new dimension."

Sea trade and pirates

The International Naval Bureau (IMF) in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), which has been monitoring global piracy since 1991, registered 445 pirate attacks, 53 hijacked merchant ships, and 1,181 hostages in the past year alone - more than ever before.

Pirates made the seas unsafe even in ancient times. However, the raids at that time were limited to areas near the coast; Only between the 16th and 18th centuries did “privateers” and pirates commissioned by states venture out onto the high seas. Nowadays, pirates can mainly be found in places where there are no longer any state structures as there are currently in Somalia.

In the Horn of Africa, pirates prefer to travel with so-called “skiffs”. The clumsy, unarmed freighters can hardly do anything against the agile pirates' boats, which can often hardly be seen in the ocean, and at best just manage to make an emergency call. At most in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, the chances are good that a warship stationed there will rush to help. Since 2008, the EU has also been present there with warships as part of the “Atalanta” anti-piracy mission. They are supposed to protect ships of the UN World Food Program as well as merchant ships from attacks in the sea area, which is about the size of Europe and extends up to 300 nautical miles from the west Indian coast.

Sea Trade and security

Even if the international maritime military presence in the Horn of Africa has been gradually expanded in recent years, it is still, at best, a drop in the ocean. “You have to set priorities,” replies frigate captain Frank Schwarzhuber when asked whether the current troop strength in the region is sufficient to effectively protect merchant shipping. The 45-year-old commander spent six months with the German frigate “Hamburg” in the Horn of Africa. "In the Indian Ocean there are attacks and calls for help almost every day," reports the captain. "The corridor through the Gulf of Aden is now very safe."

Schwarzhuber had a special team on board for emergencies. The ten soldiers of the "Vessel Protection Team" are armed with machine guns, have been tried out in close combat, and can, if necessary, be dropped off by helicopter on endangered merchant ships. “This approach has proven itself,” says the frigate captain. Many shipowners have recognized this and are now taking armed, private security guards onboard themselves. “The industry is booming.” A positive side effect: Your presence depresses the sum insured for the ships.

Barbed wire and human-sized dolls on the upper deck and an increased number of guards are also intended to deter the pirates. If the ship is boarded anyway, the crew of some cargo ships can entrench themselves in a so-called citadel, an armored shelter in which the crew can take care of themselves for several days. However, the technology is not yet so advanced that the ships can be steered from the citadel. According to marine historian Martin Rheinheimer, there is only one tried and tested means of bringing piracy in the Horn of Africa under control in the long term. “We need orderly conditions in Somalia,” he says. But no matter how the fight against piracy ends: The transport of goods by sea will continue to grow, say experts.

Sea trade and natural resources

According to scientists, there is also great economic potential in the oceans in the energy sector and the exploitation of the deep sea. Because fossil raw materials such as crude oil or natural gas are becoming ever fewer and more expensive, politicians and energy providers are primarily relying on the construction of so-called offshore wind turbines. At the beginning of May 2011, 16 kilometers off the Baltic coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the first commercially used system in Germany of the energy supplier EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg went into operation. For investment costs of around 300 million euros, 21 turbines up to 165 meters high turn in the wind when the weather conditions are favorable. According to the operator, the park will produce up to 185-gigawatt hours of electricity per year, which is exactly for 50,000 households.

In his adopted home Denmark, Professor Rheinheimer has also been able to observe in recent years how more and more wind turbines have been set up on the coast. Scientist believes that this industry will grow in the years to come. However, here too mankind is reaching the limits of nature. “At some point, there will come a point where everything is blocked,” he says. At present, only waters close to the coast can be considered as building ground for wind farms; in most places, the world's oceans are too deep and often reach down to 5000 meters or more. Far. Deep. Mysterious. And unfathomable.

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