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Deep sea sponges may hold key to antibiotic resistance

9 October, 2019

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.

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Deep-sea dilemma

1 October, 2019

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.

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Getting to the bottom of things: Can mining the deep sea be sustainable?

8 September, 2019

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.

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A global assessment of biodiversity and research effort at active Seafloor Massive Sulphides

10 August, 2019

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.”

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Protecting the strange sea pangolin and other animals: Q&A with deep sea biologist Chong Chen

7 August, 2019

Source: Mongabay
Author: Shreya Dasgupta

  • Creatures living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents lead a unique life that researchers are only now beginning to understand. Yet these animals are at risk of disappearing because of deep-sea mining before we even learn about them.
  • A deep-sea hydrothermal vent mollusk, the scaly-foot snail (Chrysomallon squamiferum), for example, debuted as endangered on the IUCN Red List this year because of threats from mining.
  • Mongabay spoke with deep-sea biologist Chong Chen, who has been assessing deep-sea hydrothermal vent species for the IUCN Red List, about his work and why listing these species on the IUCN Red List matters.

Continue reading here.

 

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High seas treaty: race for rights to ocean’s genetic resources

7 August, 2019

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.

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Big Tech Needs to Save the Deep Seas

3 August, 2019

Source: Bloomberg Opinion
Author: Adam Minter

At some point in the next decade, a large, tractor-like device will start crawling the deepest seafloor, gathering potato-sized nuggets packed with metals crucial to electric vehicles, renewable-energy storage and smartphones. Nobody knows how badly this industrialization of the deep sea could damage the marine environment. Even proponents concede that it’ll disrupt and permanently erase habitats that have been barely explored, much less understood.

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