Headline: Experts call for protection of deep-ocean: Science Commentary

Fishing, oil and gas development, industrial-scale mining, waste disposal and land-based pollution will cause lasting damage to the deep-ocean. Therefore, Jeff Ardron, Senior Fellow at the IASS, and co-authors from a variety of disciplines call in their article “A Call for Deep-Ocean Stewardship”, which was published on May 16 in Science, for a re-think on the current deep sea ‘gold rush’ in order to maintain the deep ocean’s delicate ecological balance.

The world’s deep-ocean spans more than half the planet and holds vast quantities of untapped energy resources, precious metals and minerals. But as advancements in technology enable greater access to these treasures of the deep, the authors are urging to move from a frontier mentality of exploitation to a precautionary system, highlighting the potentially irreversible damage that extracting such resources can cause.

A new activity on the horizon is deep-ocean mining. The International Seabed Authority has developed regulations for mining exploration of the international seabed. In addition, many nations are in the process of leasing offshore mining. However, there are currently serious governance issues and human activities that are managed on a single-sector basis, if at all. “We need to set up some basic standards around transparency. Although legally ‘the common heritage of mankind’, the contents of the mining applications are currently withheld from the public. The governance system we are putting in place for this new activity will now set the precedent for the future”, explains Ardron.

The recommendations in the paper arose during an inaugural meeting of the Deep-ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI). According to Dr Lisa Levin, one of DOSI’s founders, “The Initiative is designed to bring natural and social scientists, regulators, the private sector and civil society together to provide guidance on environmental management of the deep-ocean. We humans don’t have a great track record with stewardship of land and our coastal ocean. Hopefully, we can do a better job with the deep half of the planet.” The paper is part of IASS’s broader research efforts on Ocean Governance to support sustainable management of the deep-ocean and high seas.

The J.M. Kaplan Fund and the International Network for Scientific Investigation of deep-sea ecosystems (INDEEP) through a grant from Fondation Total have supported development of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative.

Article: Mengerink, K. J.; Van Dover, C. L.; Ardron, J.; Baker, M.; Escobar-Briones, E.; Gjerde, K.; Koslow, J.A.; Ramirez-Llodra, E.; Lara-Lopez, A.; Squires, D.; Sutton, T.; (2014): A Call for Deep-Ocean Stewardship. Science: Vol. 344 no. 6185 pp. 696-698

Please find the paper here.

For further information please contact: jeff [dot] ardron [at] iass-potsdam [dot] de (jeff[dot]ardron[at]iass-potsdam[dot]de)

For interview inquiries please contact: media [at] iass-potsdam [dot] de (media[at]iass-potsdam[dot]de)