US fish farming on oil rigs.

NEW ORLEANS - Thousands of oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could be converted into deep-sea fish farms raising red snapper, mahi mahi, yellowfin tuna and flounder, under a plan backed by the Bush administration.
More on the rosy future of farming here.

Indian Ocean climate watch network grows

The development of a huge observing network to monitor ocean currents and temperature and understand the conditions that bring rain - and drought - to nearly two thirds of the world’s population is underway in the Indian Ocean.

Hunt for medicine in the seabottom begins

[World News] FORT PIERCE, Fla.,, April 4 : An ocean research organization from Fort Pierce, Fla.,, is spending the next two weeks in the Florida Straits north of Cuba looking for medicines.

The exploration includes the first submersible exploration of the Cay Sal Bank, a 60-mile wide sand bank fringed by a number of small uninhabited islands 30 miles off the Cuban coast.

The researchers are looking for organisms that produce chemicals with the potential to cure diseases such as cancer and Alzheimers.

"We don't really know what organisms to expect," said Dr. Amy Wright, who heads the Harbor Branch Marine Research Group.

"Given the difference in the habitat, we expect to find some new species that we haven't collected before.That's why we're going," she said.

The expedition also includes exploration aboard a submersible on the Miami-Terrace, a 60-mile long, deep-water reef east of south Florida.

The researchers will try to gather samples of a species of sponge found last May that produces chemical that show potential for fighting pancreatic cancer.

- -- Copyright 2005 by United Press International.