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Our society cannot survive without a cheap supply of minerals; so, it may not be too early to look for new sources.

If mines on land are gradually becoming depleted, could the oceans become our new mines? There have been several proposals for mining the oceans' floor, but that is just an extension of conventional mining and, besides, the task has proved to be complex and expensive. The real change of paradigm, instead, is in extracting ions dissolved in seawater.

File this one under if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

A group of commercial fishermen wants to get in on the rush to build offshore wind farms to generate electricity. It’s an interesting about face for the fishing industry, which has traditionally fought offshore industrialization – other than their own floating seafood factories, that is.

The effort is attracting attention in New Jersey, where the state is looking to provide grants for a pilot offshore wind farm.

The researchers, working under the banner of the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik, N.W.T., plan to conduct 10 days of tests next month on Richards Island and the west side of Mallik Bay.

The drill site itself, where a service rig is being set up, is about 65 kilometres west of Tuktoyaktuk and 130 kilometres north of Inuvik.

About a kilometre underneath that rig is 113.3 billion cubic metres of methane, frozen in an ice-like state under about 600 metres of permafrost.

Ocean waves are said to have the highest energy density of energy renewable energy source - one thousand denser than wind. Finavera Renewables is a publicly traded company focusing on the development of renewable energy resources and technologies; such as the AquaBuOY (yes, spelled that way) - a floating buoy structure that converts the energy from waves into clean electricity..

Clusters of AquaBuOYs can be combined into arrays generating output from a few hundred kilowatts to several hundred megawatts and are made up of components that have been proven in other marine industries for decades.