Rebecca Helm, Nichola Clark, and Diva Amon for the Deep-sea Mining Observer The High Seas cover nearly half of Earth’s surface, and hold over 90% of livable habitat on the planet. Yet the High Seas fall under no single nation’s jurisdiction (similar to the ‘Area Beyond National Jurisdiction’ (ABNJ)), and as a result, governance of […]
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In the early days of exploration, the deep-sea was thought to be largely devoid of life, a vast empty plain of mud wrapped around the world, too deep for living organisms to survive. But the more humans explore, the more life we discover in increasingly unexpected places, from the boiling water of hydrothermal vents, to […]
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Ned Pennant-Rea for chinadialogue ocean | 28 February 2019 The UN has described the deep sea as “the largest source of species and ecosystem diversity on Earth.” Life thrives particularly on the vast expanses of sea floor known as abyssal plains, amid the submarine mountains that rise from them and around superheated springs. Extremes of […]
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Harriet Harden-Davies | 15 November 2018 “This is a chance to take a course correction while we still can…if we pull together, we can make it”. Rena Lee, president of the intergovernmental conference—fondly referred to as Madame Captain—set an ambitious, positive and suitably nautical tone to open historic negotiations on 4 September 2018 at the […]
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JAMES MCNISH on NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM | 10 October 2017 “The research, led by the Museum, has expanded the number of known species of mollusc living on the zone’s seafloor from one to 21, with some species new to science. According to Dr Adrian Glover, principal investigator of the Museum’s Deep-sea Systematics and Ecology Research […]
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NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM LONDON (NHM) | 25 September 2017 “The sponges live on the ocean floor on metal-rich nodules. The region where they live is targeted by deep-sea mining companies interested in mineral extraction. Scientists believe they are likely the most abundant animal living on the nodules and could be a key indicator species for […]
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On Friday, July 21st, a U.N Preparatory Committee on high seas biodiversity agreed on a recommendation to the U.N. General Assembly to advance an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) to negotiate a potential Open Ocean Treaty for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems beyond national jurisdiction. Unlike the seabed beyond national jurisdiction, which has had a legal […]
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MATTHEW O. BERGER on OCEANS DEEPLY | 29 August 2017 “The largest ecosystem on Earth – the deep sea – is one of the least studied even as climate change, plastic pollution and seabed mining threaten its biodiversity. Those are the findings from a new review of studies on life in the deep sea, the area of the […]
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MICHAEL TSAI on HONOLULU STAR ADVERTISER | 9 July 2017 “A University of Hawaii oceanography professor is among an international team of scientists, economists and legal scholars warning that loss of biodiversity needs to be counted among the unavoidable and possibly irrevocable costs of deep-sea mining.” Read the full article on Honolulu Star Advertiser
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DUKE UNIVERSITY | 26 June 2017 DURHAM, N.C. — Biodiversity losses from deep-sea mining are unavoidable and possibly irrevocable, an international team of 15 marine scientists, resource economists and legal scholars argue in a letter published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The experts say the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which is responsible under the […]
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