Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

with such a grab. In addition to the claw type grab, Dr. Herzig described two
others. One, he said was developed for sampling the Red Sea metalliferous
sediments and the other was developed to sample rocks and sulphides
without taking any sediment with the samples. He said that researchers still
used the grab developed for the metalliferous sediments because it is quite
robust and has turned out to be a good tool for sulphides and rock sampling.
Following the appraisal of large regions of the seabed, grassroots
exploration work as Dr. Herzig described it, he said that economic geologists
and geochemists still required other data and information on, inter alia, the
composition, grades of contained metals, the content of reduced sulphur and
other characteristics of the hot fluid coming out of the chimneys. To obtain
these data and information, Dr. Herzig said that the normal process is to take
samples of the fluid with titanium bottles at the vent. He pointed out that this
cannot be done from a research vessel, but has to be from a submersible or by
using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). In addition, he said that for
“ground truthing” or detailed mapping of particular seafloor sites and
deposits, for precise small scale sampling, including sampling of
hydrothermal fluids at active black smoker chimneys, manned research
submersibles and remotely operated vehicles are required.
He identified twelve research submersibles with operational depths of
between 400 and 6,500 metres, from five countries as being equal to the task.
He also identified six remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) with depth
capabilities ranging between 3,300 and 11,000 metres, from four countries that
could also do this work.
Research Submersibles
With regard to research submersibles, Dr. Herzig said that they
normally accommodate two pilots and one scientist, are generally equipped
with two 5 to 7 function manipulators for sampling and measurements, and
are launched from a mother ship.
He described the German submersible, JAGO that can accommodate a
pilot and a scientist as an excellent mini submersible that is easy to use, and
that has very good handling capabilities up to a water depth of about 400m.
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