Eight years after SA applied to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend its jurisdiction over 1.87mkm² of ocean, it is still waiting for a decision. The rationale for the application is not to acquire more fishing resources, because fish are excluded. It would allow SA to explore for minerals and hydrocarbons in a wide area around its shores and exploit the organisms on the seabed that have proven useful in medical science. Marine invertebrates are a valuable source of natural products that can have pharmaceutical applications. For example, Halichondria sponges have contributed to an approved anticancer drug called Halaven. In the latest issue of the SA Journal of Science, a team describes how the biological screening of eight species of marine sponges collected from around SA’s two island territories, Marion and Prince Edward, revealed the cytotoxic (cell-killing) activities of the sponges against three strains of cancer. The unclaimed areas of the ocean ...
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