standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

could play in this development and in advising the Authority on monitoring
issues.
In this regard, the Secretary-General voiced the view that, after the
years spent in setting up the legal framework, it was now time to reach out
for help from the scientific community and the mining community. While
the LTC and the Secretariat had the capacity to deal with scientific matters,
the input of outside experts would be invaluable. In fact, the purpose of the
series of workshops convened by the Authority was to seek such help in
establishing indicators, guidelines and recommendations that would assist
the Secretariat in evaluating the information submitted by contractors.
Dr. Craig R. Smith, Professor in the Department of Oceanography at
the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, United States, discussed the guidelines
for gathering environmental baseline data that had been developed by the
1998 Sanya Workshop. In a paper and oral presentation, he placed them in
the broader context of the environmental impacts of seabed mining and
how to monitor those impacts.
In his paper, he identified four sources of potentially harmful
impacts. (1) Movement of the mining vehicle across the seabed would
remove sediments and animal life from the ocean bottom. (2) The massive
plume of suspended sediment generated by this process would bury the
surrounding area under a blanket up to several centimetres thick. (3)
Release of bottom water and sediment as the nodules were raised to the
surface would alter light levels and metal concentrations, affecting foodweb
dynamics. (4) Release of tailings from the nodule-processing surface
vessel would alter the characteristics of the water column above the mine
site.
Dr. Smith pointed out that the limited amount of scientific
knowledge about deep-sea ecology, largely due to the difficulty and expense
of exploring such a remote environment, made it impossible to predict
exactly what effects seabed mining might have on the animals dwelling or
feeding there. He suggested several approaches to narrowing this
knowledge gap, including systematized and standardized research efforts to
identify seabed fauna and their distribution. In particular, he urged a
centralized approach to taxonomy – the identification and classification of
species – in which designated institutions would receive and study
specimens from seabed contractors, who would support this work with
annual financial contributions.
23 INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY