standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

Executive Summary
?? A German researcher collecting animal specimens uses only a fifth
of his sediment core from the deep ocean bottom before learning
that his counts will not be statistically valid unless he uses all 2500
square centimetres of the core.
?? An Indian scientist wishing to compare results on bottom-sediment
density in the Indian and Pacific Oceans learns that he cannot
because his Japanese counterparts in the Pacific have used
different methods to take their measurements. One group removed
the air from the sample before testing, while the other did not.
?? A United States biologist who has identified a number of deep-sea
worms from a Pacific site and wants to compare them with similar
animals gathered at a second site has no way of matching them
unless he works alongside another scientist residing elsewhere who
has used different criteria to classify the second collection. As a
result, he cannot immediately know whether the species he has
collected also inhabit the second location or whether their range is
more restricted.
These cases were cited by participants in the Workshop convened
by the International Seabed Authority in June 2001 to discuss ways of
standardizing the environmental data that must be gathered by contractors
authorized by the Authority to explore for polymetallic nodules in seabed
areas beyond national jurisdiction.
The Workshop brought together 39 engineers, scientists and other
experts from 17 countries and the United Nations. Among them were
participants from six of the seven entities approved for exploration
contracts. Twenty-one formal presentations were made and discussed,
most of them accompanied by papers. The proceedings in this volume
reproduce all of those papers and summarize the discussions at the
Workshop.
Mandates
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1 , in part XI
dealing with the international portion of the deep seabed (known as “the
Area”), provides in article 145 that:
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 13