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Featured Image: Tectitethya crypta by Dr. Sven Zea
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Bioprospecting in Practice: How a drug goes from the ocean to the clinic.
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Bioprospecting, the discovery of new pharmaceutical compounds, industrial chemicals, and novel genes from natural systems, is frequently cited among the critical non-mineral commercial activities that yield value from the deep ocean. Isolating new chemicals or molecular processes from nature can provide substantial benefits to a variety of industries. Products derived just from marine genetic resources are valued at $50 billion while a single enzyme isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent used in ethanol production has an annual economic impact of $150 million.
In contrast to other extractive processes, bioprospecting is driven by and dependent on biodiversity. The greater the diversity and novelty of an ecosystem, the greater the likelihood that new compounds exist within that community. Bioprospecting is also viewed as light extraction, compounds only need to be identified once–actual production happens synthetically in the lab–thus leaving ecosystems relatively undisturbed compared to more intensive industries.
Despite the promise and importance of bioprospecting, there is generally a relatively poor understanding of what the process of discovery entails. How do researchers go from sponges on the seafloor to new antiviral treatments?
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From the Editor: What will the next ISA meeting look like?
With the next ISA meeting pushed back to October and shortened, many stakeholders are left wondering what Part II of the 26th Session of the International Seabed Authority will look like, what the priorities will be, and what council members should expect to see on the agenda. Privately, several observers have indicated that they do not expect the draft mining code brought up for discussion again until 2021.
"The priority items for the Council will include the issue in relation to election of members of the Legal and Technical Commission (LTC) and the budget of ISA for the years 2021 and 2022." says ISA Secretary-General Lodge. "It is up to the decision of the Council during its meetings in October 2020 as to whether the Draft Exploitation Regulations will be discussed by the Council. If there is not sufficient time for this agenda item, it may be deferred to 2021. The LTC and the Finance Committee have been working remotely in July and where possible continue to work inter-sessionally to ensure there is minimal disruption to the overall workflow."
We also asked about the status of the Endowment Fund and whether or not plans are in place to use some of the fund to increase remote participation capacity in member states. Says SG Lodge, "As of today, the balance of the Endowment Fund is of US$3,503,567. As indicated in the announcement released on 22 June 2020, all activities funded under this scheme are postponed until the end of 2020 which will also allow the Secretariat to review the functioning of the Fund in line with the key findings of the review commissioner by the Secretariat on the capacity-building programmes and initiatives implemented by ISA, as well as the outcomes of the workshop on ‘Capacity development, resources and needs assessment that was held in Kingston’ in February 2020."
Finally, many stakeholders are of course concerned that travel to and from Jamaica may still be difficult, due to pandemic restrictions, even in October. Though many countries have the outbreak under control and are beginning to reopen to travel, the United States has not. This is a particular concern for delegations that travel from their United Nations New York mission, rather than directly from their home countries. "The Secretariat is monitoring the situation closely and will make sure to keep all members and observers abreast of any changes. However, several delegations have already confirmed their attendance at the October session." says Secretary-General Lodge.
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The long life of plastic waste at an experimental mining site.
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Featured Image: Plastic items used for the present study. Left: station 198, curd box with lid and two adjacent manganese nodules; right: station 213, plastic bag with aluminum can (inlet). Scale bars approx. 10 cm. Seafloor images taken by GEOMAR ROV KIEL 6000; Inlay image provided by Dr. M. Haeckel, GEOMAR.
Not all scientific research begins with specific intent. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as ocean scientists embarked on an ambitious plan to understand the potential impacts of deep-sea mining by simulating the disturbance caused by removing polymetallic nodules from the seafloor, they inadvertently seeded an entirely different experiment, which would ultimately provide insight into an environmental crisis that had not, at the time, been identified.
Scientific expeditions are not without their own environmental impacts, a phenomena that has been recognized by the deep-sea research community. Hydrothermal vent scientists acknowledged the potential harm that scientific research can impose upon deep-ocean ecosystems and adopted the InterRidge Code of Conduct for blah blah blah, which has been implemented by other deep-ocean research teams. While many of these harms relate to direct impacts to the seafloor, the presence of a ship on station, and the intermittent rain of refuse, especially in the early day of deep-sea exploration, also leaves a mark.
Some of those impacts can lead to opportunities. In 2015, during the most recent survey of the DISCOL disturbance area to assess long-term impacts of polymetallic nodule mining on the abyssal plain, scientists from GEOMAR, as well as other German research institutions, recovered several large pieces of plastic trash from the seafloor. This in itself, is not uncommon. Plastic trash is observed on nearly every deep sea dive, from Antarctica to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. What was unusual is that the researchers were able to track the trash back to the source. Labeling on a lid and identifying marks on a plastic bag and an aluminum can allowed the team to determine not only approximately when the trash was deposited, but from which vessel–it was waste that made its way overboard during previous DISCOL surveys.
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Four new Xenophyophores discovered from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
The deep sea is no stranger to the strange. From pill bugs the size of a large cat to bone-eating snot-flower worms to the salp-stealing shrimp that inspired the monster from Alien, the most iconic dwellers of the deep oceans trend towards the bizarre. Though it may lack the flair of other deep-sea denizens, few other creatures rival the sheer oddity of the seemingly simple Xenophyophore, a large, sponge-like foraminifera common throughout the abyssal plain.
Xenophyophores are single-celled organisms with multiple nuclei. This alone places them among the most unusual organisms in the ocean. At up to 20 centimeters long, the largest xenophyophore, Syringammina fragilissima, is also the largest known single-celled organism. These organisms form crunchy, fragile shells, called tests, created from an agglomeration of deep-sea sediment. They are incredibly fragile and are rarely recovered for study intact. It’s still not clear exactly how they feed, though they do host several other organisms within their test.
 A specimen of Abyssalia, a new genus of Foraminifera. Photo credit: Slim Chraiti, University of Geneva.
Xenophyophores have challenged taxonomists since their discovery. Initially described as a primitive foraminifera, they were then reclassified as sponges, then amoeba, then their own group of protists, then finally as a highly specialized group of foraminifera.
Xenophyophores are among the most common species found within polymetallic nodule fields. Recently, four new species of xenophyophore were discovered within the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. With 17 known species of xenophyophore and many more likely waiting to be discovered, the CCZ may be a biodiversity hotspot for this unusual animal. "These four new species and two new genera have increased the number of described xenophyophores in the CCZ abyss to 17, with many more known but still undescribed," says Andrew Gooday of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
True to form, one still-undescribed species that looked like a spherical mudball disintegrated before it could be examined.
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What impact will deep-sea mining have on midwater habitats?
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Featured image: Midwater animal biodiversity. Squid, fish, shrimp, copepods, medusa, filter feeding jellies and marine worms are among the midwater creatures that could be affected by deep sea mining. Photos © by E. Goetze, K. Peijnenburg, D. Perrine, Hawaii Seafood Council (B. Takenaka, J. Kaneko), S. Haddock, J. Drazen, B. Robison, DEEPEND (Danté Fenolio) and MBARI.
Jessica Perelman and Jesse van der Grient for the DSM Observer
The ocean’s midwaters comprise the largest habitat on Earth and contribute significant ecosystem services including nutrient supply to surface waters and carbon transport, as well as support pelagic fisheries. But midwaters (generally defined as the pelagic ocean below 200 meters depth) also remain one of the planet’s least explored habitats. As the deep-sea mining industry advances, our understanding of its environmental impacts, especially on midwater ecosystems, remains poor. This month, we published “Midwater ecosystems must be considered when evaluating environmental risks of deep-sea mining.” The article explores the significance and complexities of midwater ecosystems, how they may be influenced by deep-sea mining, and calls for the consideration of these influences in ongoing ecosystem assessments and developing mining regulations.
Benthic ecosystems have been the focus of mining-impact research since its beginnings. Ecosystem assessments in polymetallic nodule fields, hydrothermal vent fields, and the cobalt-rich crusts of seamounts prioritized seafloor habitats where direct effects from resource removal will occur. These studies focused on characterizing the abundance, diversity, and resilience of species and communities living on the seafloor in and around these areas, and provide valuable baseline data to inform management of mining activities.
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Deep-sea Mining News in Brief
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Image courtesy Grist / Amelia Bates
(Grist) For humanity to kick its fossil fuel habit, we’re going to need a lot more wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries. Building all of that green energy infrastructure will likely require billions of tons of metals and minerals, raising the question of where we’re going to get them. One surprising possible answer? The bottom of the sea, where key green energy metals, including nickel, cobalt, and rare earth minerals, can be found in abundance.
A polymetallic nodule from the Pacific Ocean. Image by Velizar Gordeev.
(Mongabay) The Cook Islands government plans to license seabed mining operators to prospect its exclusive economic zone for manganese and cobalt nodules within the coming financial year, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown told the Cook Islands News.
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New dives to Challenger Deep raise old questions about privatization and exploration
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Featured Images: Friends of the Mariana Trench during the 2008 campaign to obtain Marine National Monument status for the Mariana Trench and surrounding island and seamounts.
For over 50 years, deep-ocean explorers have been able to claim that more people have walked on the moon than have dived to the deepest point on the Earth. Only two men descended into Challenger Deep in the 20th century–Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard–they were joined in the early 2010s by director James Cameron. Earlier this year, Victor Vescovo became the fourth to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep and, over the course of several subsequent dives this summer, the ranks of those who’ve reached the deepest ocean has swelled.
Astronaut, oceanographer, and former NOAA Administrator Kathy Sullivan and explorer and mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien became the first and second woman to dive to the bottom of Challenge Deep aboard the privately owned HOV Limiting Factor, piloted by Vescovo and his team.
June was a banner month for private exploration, with both new record-setting dives to Challenger Deep and the launch of the SpaceX crewed Dragon Capsule that successfully rendezvoused with the International Space Station. As boundary breaking technologies become more accessible to civil society and governments transition more and more exploration funding to private entities or public/private partnerships, increasingly activities in the deep ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction will be conducted by private individuals, adding a new layer of complexity to the already complex seascape of high seas policy.
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