Economy - overview:
The Pacific Ocean is a major contributor to the world economy and
particularly to those nations its waters directly touch. It provides
low-cost sea transportation between East and West, extensive fishing
grounds, offshore oil and gas fields, minerals, and sand and gravel
for the construction industry. In 1996, over 60% of the world's fish
catch came from the Pacific Ocean. Exploitation of offshore oil and
gas reserves is playing an ever-increasing role in the energy
supplies of US, Australia, NZ, China, and Peru. The high cost of
recovering offshore oil and gas, combined with the wide swings in
world prices for oil since 1985, has slowed but not stopped new
drillings.