Cashing in on the Ocean
They lie around in their billions in the deeper part of the Pacific Ocean. They are roundish, blackish, smallish. They are called manganese nodules - and seldom can such dull-looking objects have excited so many scientists, industrialists and diplomats.
Though the origin and exact composition of nodules is still something of a scientific mystery, what is known for sure is that they contain enough nickel, copper and cobalt to make a multi-billionaire of anybody who could solve the technical problem of scooping them up to five km below the surface.
Nodules also pose the trickiest problem international law has ever faced. They belong to nobody, and to everybody. Last week in New York the Third United Nations Law of the Sea Conference convened for the eighth time to try and decide how these abundant riches should be fairly distributed. Does ' natural justice' require a profit-sharing operation controlled by every country in the world? Or should the seven industrialised countries that already have the technology and the wherewithal be allowed to get on with it? A collection of crumbly black rocks has become the supreme test case for the world politics of the future. Narrator FRANK WINDSOR
Film editor colin JONES
Editor simon CAMPBELL-JONES
Written and produced by STUART HARRIS