COLONIZING THE SEA

With the experimental habitats of Tektite I and II relegated to a brief final chapter, this is a frankly futuristic projection of the offshore service systems which Bergaust admits are too much for one industry to set up but are technologically feasible now. Thus, ""we must encourage new consortiums."" He envisions complex cities built around oil drilling rigs, nuclear power plants (perfectly safe, in his estimation, on land or sea), airports, sewage facilities, and fish farms. Of course these facilities would then spawn hotels, processing plants, weather and coast guard stations, health and food services, underwater traffic cops. . . you take it from there. Eventually, Bergaust sees parks set aside for sports divers. He promotes all of this as an answer to pollution and space problems on land, but doesn't provide an environmental impact statement on how the other activities will affect the aquaculture, for example. The whole concept of utilizing our ""last frontier"" is certainly something to think about--probably a little harder than Bergaust encourages.