Source: chinadialogue ocean
Author: Jessica Aldred
Prof Mat Upton is a medical microbiologist and Dr Kerry Howell is a deep-sea marine ecologist. At the University of Plymouth they have discovered antimicrobial properties in bacteria that live in a species of deep-sea sponge – a potential breakthrough in the fight against antibiotic-resistant superbugs. But they warn that such potential could be lost in the drive to exploit the ocean floor for minerals.
Continue reading Deep sea sponges may hold key to antibiotic resistance
Source: New Internationalist
Author: Diva Amon
I’m on a ship 1,600 kilometres away from the nearest landmass. It has taken us five days to get from California to the middle of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Our team sends a remotely operated vehicle 4.5 kilometres down to a flat abyssal plain that has never been explored by humans before.
Source: The Conversation
Author: Anna Metaxas & Verena Tunnicliffe
It is completely dark, just above freezing cold and the pressure is crushing: this is the deep-sea floor. Food is very scarce in this huge region, yet a great diversity of animals have adapted to exploit and recycle resources and thrive within it.
Continue reading Getting to the bottom of things: Can mining the deep sea be sustainable?
Source: Mining.com
Prime minister James Marape has agreed to support a 10-year moratorium on deep sea mining, first proposed by Fiji at the recent Pacific Islands Forum.
Continue reading 10-year moratorium on deep sea mining in PNG not enough – activists
Download press release here
The penultimate phase of UN negotiations to secure legal protection for biodiversity in the high seas and deep seabed Area have started in New York (19 August 2019) against a backdrop of growing concern over the prospect of deep-sea mining.
Continue reading Calls for a Deep Seabed Mining Moratorium Grow
Source: China Daily
Author: Karl Wilson
Whether companies should be allowed to mine the seafloor is a question gaining traction as the International Seabed Authority debates the drafting of a code that could eventually lead to such commercial mining.
Source: Southern Fried Science
Author: Andrew David Thaler
[The following is a transcript from a talk given by Andrew David Thaler at a side event during Part II of the 25th Session of the International Seabed Authority in July, 2019. It has been lightly edited for clarity.]
“I want to change gears this afternoon and talk about a very different kind of mining. For the last two years, Diva and I have been engaged in a data mining project to discover what we can learn and what we still need to learn about biodiversity at hydrothermal vents from the 40-year history of ocean exploration in the deep sea.”
Continue reading here.
Source: Mongabay
Author: Shreya Dasgupta
Continue reading here.
Source: Chinadialogue Ocean
Author: Li Jing
The ocean is home to millions of species, many of which are still unknown to humans. It supplies us with oxygen and each year absorbs nearly 25% of the greenhouse gases we produce by burning fossil fuels. However, vast areas of the high seas, which cover nearly half of the Earth’s surface, remain unregulated.
Continue reading High seas treaty: race for rights to ocean’s genetic resources
