Source: Nature
Author: Johnathan Lambert
Valuable metals and minerals pepper the creature’s habitat, drawing commercial interest to the sea floor.
Continue reading Ocean snail is first animal to be officially endangered by deep-sea mining
Source: Inside Sources
Author: Sylvia Earle and John Bridgeland
For more than 2,000 years, Greek mythology has conjured up images of Oceanus and Poseidon with his Trident wielding power over Earth’s most valuable resource — the ocean. But it wasn’t until just 50 years ago that we began to fully understand how important the ocean ecosystem is to life on Earth.
Source: Greenpeace
If you follow artists and illustrators on Instagram, it is likely you’ve come across the #DrawThisInYourStyle challenge, where artists recreate others illustrations in their own unique style. Now the hashtag is being used to help bring to life a small, unique and unknown part of the ocean which is at risk from the mining industry.
Continue reading How an Instagram hashtag is inspiring thousands to protect the deep sea
Source: EcoWatch
Author: Greenpeace
When it comes to being otherworldly, alien and bizarre, the ocean has plenty to fuel the imagination and make your jaw drop: giant scuttling bugs, jelly-like blobfish, slimy mucus-drenched hagfish, hairy armed lobsters and almost anything else you could imagine.
It’s no big surprise that Hollywood science fiction films so often look to the deep for their monsters, landscapes and mystery. After all, the deep ocean is more alien to us than the surface of the moon.
But bizarrely, some scientists think the ocean floor might well be the very place where life on our planet first evolved.
Continue reading here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday 5 July 2019
Countries fishing on the high seas of the Indian Ocean have continued to seriously fail to uphold their commitments to protect deep-sea ecosystems from deep water bottom fishing, said the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), as a fisheries management meeting for the Southern Indian Ocean came to an end today (5 July 2019).
At the conclusion of the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA) annual meeting in Mauritius, the DSCC, which represents over 80 non-governmental organizations, called on the body to seriously step up its protection of deep-sea ecosystems, vulnerable marine ecosystems, deep-sea sharks and toothfish. Deep-sea trawling continues to be permitted on seamounts in the region with inadequate constraints in place to protect deep-sea corals, sponges and other biodiversity hot spots.
Duncan Currie of the DSCC, who attended the meeting, said: “The inadequate decisions reached fail to adequately protect deep-sea ecosystems and species at a time when we know that we must escalate our collective efforts to protect the whole ocean. Governments need to step up and resist pressure by industry to weaken protection.”
The meeting addressed contentious issues, including the rapid increases in toothfish fishing by Spanish vessels in southern parts of the SIOFA area, adjacent to areas managed by CCAMLR, the international body for managing the Southern Ocean ecosystem. CCAMLR has taken measures to better manage its toothfish stocks. Also controversial was the decision to permit a bycatch of fragile sponges amounting 300 kg limit per trawl tow, over the recommended 60 kg limit. A DSCC request to reinsert a ban on removal of shark fins was rejected. The organization did agree a high seas inspection and boarding regime, which DSCC welcomes.
Duncan Currie said: “These fisheries agreements are supposed to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems such as sponges, not sanction their destruction.”
ENDS
The Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA) was signed in Rome the 7th July 2006 and entered into force in June 2012. To date, SIOFA has nine Contracting Parties: Australia, the Cook Islands, the European Union, France on behalf of its Indian Ocean Territories, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mauritius, the Seychelles and Thailand.
For further information please contact:
Duncan Currie in Mauritius on +64 21 632 335, duncanc@globelaw.com
or
Matt Gianni on +31-646 168 899, matthewgianni@gmail.com
Source: Eco-Business
Author: Zafirah Zein
There is increasing pressure to delve into the deep sea and extract precious minerals and metals that governments and businesses say are crucial to driving a low-carbon future. Has the mining industry sunk to new lows?
Continue reading Exploitation of the Earth’s last frontier will leave the world in deep water
Source: Down To Earth
The international non-profit raises concerns on the International Seabed Authority’s role and competence.
Continue reading Deep sea mining threatens global waters, seabed authority lets it: Greenpeace
Source: The Guardian
Author: Matthew Taylor
The world’s oceans are facing a “new industrial frontier” from a fledgling deep-sea mining industry as companies line up to extract metals and minerals from some of the most important ecosystems on the planet, a report has found.
Continue reading Deep-sea mining to turn oceans into ‘new industrial frontier’
Source: The Guardian
Author: Chris Packham
“When I was filming Blue Planet Live, I was struck by just how much of the ocean has been altered by humans. From industrial fisheries ensnaring ocean giants in kilometres-long lines, to finding our trash at some of the deepest parts of the ocean: it’s clear that however vast the seas are, we are causing profound harm.
Continue reading In too deep: why the seabed should be off-limits to mining companies
