Media Release
Wednesday 22 February
The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) has given the green light to destroying 30% of vulnerable deep-water corals and sponges and failed to protect hotspots for life in the deep.
Media Release
Wednesday 22 February
The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) has given the green light to destroying 30% of vulnerable deep-water corals and sponges and failed to protect hotspots for life in the deep.
Source: ScienceDaily
Explosive volcanic eruptions are possible deep down in the sea — although the water masses exert enormous pressure there. An international team reports in the journal Nature Geoscience how this can happen.
Source: Vice
Author: Madeleine Gregory
After about 40 years of federal protection, destroyed underwater mountain ecosystems are showing signs of life.
Source: Phys.org
For decades, overfishing and trawling devastated parts of an underwater mountain range in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, wrecking deep-sea corals and destroying much of their ecological community.
Continue reading Depleted seamounts near Hawaii recovering after decades of federal protection
The DSCC welcomes the call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in international waters by the Long Distance Fleet Advisory Council (LDAC) of the European Union. In calling for a moratorium, the LDAC highlighted concerns by scientists, the fishing industry and environmental organizations over the potentially severe impacts on fisheries, fish and other species in the oceans and inevitable loss of marine biodiversity from deep-sea mining. The Executive Committee of the LDAC adopted the advice to the European Commission and EU Member States at its meeting in Poland last week and publicly released it today.
The International Seabed Authority, an intergovernmental organization established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, is in the process of developing regulations that would permit mining the international areas of the deep ocean seabed.
Matthew Gianni, co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, said “Fishing industry representatives and NGOs in Europe are jointly raising concern with EU member states and the international community over the prospect of deep-sea mining and its likely impacts on fisheries and the marine environment. Scientists have warned that biodiversity loss will be inevitable and likely permanent on human timescales if the International Seabed Authority begins issuing licenses to mine the deep ocean seabed for metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese.”
The LDAC recommended that no deep seabed mining in the international areas of the ocean seabed under the jurisdiction of the International Seabed Authority should be permitted until:
The LDAC further called on the European Commission and Member States to stop funding, facilitating or promoting the development of deep-sea mining and deep-sea mining technology.
Ann Dom, Deputy Director of Seas At Risk, said “We count on the EU member states to take to heart the call for a moratorium by the European Parliament and the fisheries sector, and to put it firmly on the agenda of the upcoming annual session of the International Seabed Authority”.
The LDAC endorsed a European Parliament resolution adopted in 2018 which also called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining and reform of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). In January of this year, echoing similar concerns, the UK House of Commons Environment Audit Committee released a report stating that deep-sea mining would have “catastrophic impacts on the seafloor” and that the ISA stands to benefit from revenues from issuing mining licenses which the Committee viewed as “a clear conflict of interest”.
John Tanzer, Leader, Oceans Practice, WWF International, said: “A moratorium on seabed mining – given its inherent risks and how little is known about life on the sea floor – is just plain common sense, and particularly in light of recent global biodiversity assessments showing the planet is suffering unprecedented species loss that will have profound impacts on nature and humanity at large”.
The Long Distance Fleet Advisory Council (LDAC) is an EU fisheries body representing stakeholders of both the fishing sector (including catching, processing and marketing sectors, and trade unions), and other groups of interest (environmental NGOs, consumers and civil society). Several DSCC member organizations, including Seas At Risk, WWF, Oceana, Bloom Association, are members of the LDAC.
Read the full press release
Cover image ©NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2015 Hohonu Moana
Source: MNN
Author: Christian Cotroneo
If the planet stands any chance of keeping a secret from prying humans, it’s deep in the oceans.
In fact, we’ve long known there are sprawling ranges — called seamounts — deep underwater, many as breathtakingly grand as anything we’ve seen on terra firma.
Being in the deepest depths, those clandestine cliffs and nebulous valleys elude not just human eyes, but even sea-probing satellites and sonar-equipped ships.
Continue reading Researchers discover mesmerizing underwater world teeming with new life
Source: Council of the Haida Nation
Haida Gwaii, British Columbia – The Haida Nation and the Government of Canada have agreed to increase the level of protection at the SGaan Kinghlas – Bowie Seamount Marine Protected Area (MPA) by closing all bottom-contact fishing. This closure shows a precautionary management approach to protection of sensitive benthic habitats in support of the MPA objectives.
Source: Marine Conservation Institute
Author: Kelly Martin
You’ve probably heard the saying that we know less about the deep ocean than we do about the surface of the moon. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, we have explored less than 5% of the ocean to date, so the saying is pretty accurate. However, as technology improves and scientists are able to learn more about the deep, they begin to more clearly understand its ecological value.
Continue reading The Future of the Deep Sea: Undiscovered Wonders at Risk
Source: Marine Conservation Institute
Author: Sam Georgian
Seamounts are underwater mountains rising thousands of feet from the bottom of the ocean. Due to their size and shape, seamounts exert a strong influence on local currents that results in nutrient enrichment and increased food supply. As a result, these massive features are often highly productive ‘oases’ in the deep sea, supporting a large diversity of species including functionally important deep-sea corals (Stocks and Hart 2007). Deep-sea corals provide essential habitat structures for a large number of associated organisms, including many commercially important fish. These communities are currently at risk from a number of threats including climate change, oil and gas extraction, and benthic fisheries.
Continue reading Needle in a haystack: identifying vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea
Source: The New York Times
Author: Christopher Pal
HONOLULU — Terry Kerby has been piloting deep-sea submarines for four decades, but nothing prepared him for the devastation he observed recently on several underwater mountains called seamounts in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Continue reading Loss of Federal Protections May Imperil Pacific Reefs, Scientists Warn