Economy and Human Activity
The Caribbean region has seen a significant increase in human activity since the colonisation period. The sea is one of the largest oil production areas in the world, producing approximately 170 million tons per year. The area also generates a large fishing industry for the surrounding countries, accounting for half a million metric tons of fish a year.
Human activity in the area also accounts for a significant amount of pollution, The Pan American Health Organization estimated in 1993 that only about 10% of the sewage from the Central American and Caribbean Island countries is properly treated before being released into the Sea.
The Caribbean region supports a large tourist industry. The Caribbean Tourism Organization calculates that about 12 million people a year visit the area, including (in 1991–1992) about 8 million Cruise Ship tourists. Tourism based upon scuba diving and snorkeling on coral reefs of many Caribbean islands makes a major contribution to their economies.
Read more about this topic: Caribbean Sea
Famous quotes containing the words economy and, economy, human and/or activity:
“Everyone is always in favour of general economy and particular expenditure.”
—Anthony, Sir Eden (18971977)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Unmeasured power, incredible passion, enormous craft: no thought
apparent but burns darkly
Smothered with its own smoke in the human brain-vault: no thought
outside; a certain measure in phenomena:
The fountains of the boiling stars, the flowers on the foreland, the
ever-returning roses of dawn.”
—Robinson Jeffers (18871962)
“I see advertisements for active young men, as if activity were the whole of a young mans capital. Yet I have been surprised when one has with confidence proposed to me, a grown man, to embark in some enterprise of his, as if I had absolutely nothing to do, my life having been a complete failure hitherto. What a doubtful compliment this to pay me!”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)