January 2021 · Volume 6, Issue 1

Delegates struggle to develop Regional Environmental Management Plans during a global pandemic

Featured Image: Ferromanganese Crusts near the Northwest Pacific management area. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

Since the pandemic brought travel to a halt, the International Seabed Authority has been working to meet contractor deadlines and make progress on a variety of issues revolving around finalizing the mining code, facilitating workshops, and engaging stakeholders and experts through remote meetings. These efforts include workshops on the development of Regional Environmental Management Plans (REMPs) for the Northwest Pacific and the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Though some stakeholders were satisfied with the efforts to move workshops online, many were left frustrated by a process that felt rushed, less transparent, and less inclusive of the breadth of stakeholders represented by the deep-sea mining community.

Regional Environmental Management Plans are one of the foundational policy instruments that determine how contractors act and interact within a geographic region. They provide guidance for not just individual lease blocks, but for how the whole of an area, including multiple lease blocks by multiple contractors, as well as areas of particular environmental interest and set asides, will be managed. The process of negotiating a REMP is long and detail-oriented and includes the input of numerous stakeholder groups and expert advisors. So far, only a single REMP, for the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, has been approved by the International Seabed Authority.

From the Editor: Welcome to 2021

Happy New Year from the Deep-sea Mining Observer!

We’re continuing to run our reader survey for another month. Please help us ensure that we are best serving the deep-sea mining community while reflecting a broad diversity of stakeholder views regarding the continuing development of the industry, by filling out the linked survey. No personally identifiable information is collected and it should take no more then 5 minutes to complete.

This month marks the completion of a year-long network analysis campaign to better understand how people talk about deep-sea mining online. You can read the final work below.

One anecdote that emerged from this effort but that was not captured in the analysis is that a sizable proportion of articles written about the industry used images of Nautilus Minerals’ Seafloor Production Tools. I can certainly see the narrative value for certain organizations to lean on that imagery—beyond the subtext of a now-bankrupt company those specific machines have a particularly intimidating look to them—but they don’t necessarily represent the state of the industry (and I can certainly imagine that contractors with nodule leases are less than thrilled to see a Bulk Cutter next to their headlines).

Contractors with deep-sea mining tools that are ready for public display, consider this a request from you friendly industry media outlet: the press would love an easy-to-find media packet of high-quality images of the current state-of-the-art mining technology.

What did people talk about when they talked about deep-sea mining in 2020?

Featured image: Network analysis of the 100 most commonly used words in tweets about deep-sea mining.

Almost 1 year ago, just before the commencement of the 26th Session of the International Seabed Authority in February, we began analytically tracking the online conversation surrounding deep-sea mining. Using a service called SocioViz, DSM Observer implemented a year-long sentiment and network analysis Big Listening campaign across a range of keywords used by stakeholders to discuss deep-sea mining on Twitter (the only major social media platform which provides easily accessible high resolution user data through the Twitter API). We assessed two sets of keyword groups: a general set revolving broadly around the concept of deep-sea mining and a specific set related to discussions surrounding the International Seabed Authority.

By examining the structure of online social networks and analyzing connections among stakeholders, contractors, member states, NGOs, and governmental agencies, we can better assess how stakeholders and the general public discuss and understand the industry.

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Manganese-encrusted Seafloor Habitats: 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas

In this video from 2016, Dr. Diva Amon highlights some of the animals that live on ferromanganese crusts in the US EEZ that neighbors the Northwest Pacific management area.

Deep-sea Mining in the News

Polymetallic nodules recovered in a 2018 survey of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (Image from AMC / NORI)

DeepGreen Finds More Deep-Sea Mining Potential in Clipperton Zone

(The Maritime Executive) A new subsea survey completed by Canadian deep sea mining company DeepGreen Resources found better-than-expected ore deposits in the Pacific's Clipperton Zone.

Read the full article: DeepGreen Finds More Deep-Sea Mining Potential in Clipperton Zone

(Offshore Engineer) Allseas' Subsea Mining Ship Project is Moving Forward
(Environment Journal) Majority of ocean revenue is dominated by just 100 companies
(Reuters) Norway eyes sea change in deep dive for metals instead of oil
(PNG Post-Courier) Campaign Against Deep Sea Mining Continues
(International Mining) American Bureau of Shipping gives design approval to Chinese deep-sea mining system

An incomplete tour of new species recently discovered in the deep ocean

Featured Image: Duobrachium sparksae from Ford et al. 2020.

New animal species that are genuinely new to science are remarkably rare. The modern process of discovering and describing a new species, particularly animals, usually follows a pattern of creating more and more nuanced distinctions between already known groups. “New to science” rarely means “never before observed”. In other words, when we find a new fish species, it is usually not an animal that has never been seen, but rather a known animal for whom new information points towards a clear delineation between its closest relatives, with which it was previously grouped.

What makes deep-sea exploration so exciting is that, unlike with shallow water and terrestrial ecosystems, new species are frequently totally new. When a new animal is found in the deep ocean, it is more often than not the first time human eyes have ever observed that animal.

For all its flaws, 2020 was a good year for discovering new species in the deep ocean.