Abstract
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is developing a regulation for seabed mining beyond areas of national jurisdiction. On the other hand, there are calls against seabed mining due to concerns about various environmental impacts. One of the key causes for environmental impact is the plume that would be generated by the operation of the mining collector. The potential impact of plume was recognized four decades ago, and about 30 years have passed since four impact assessment experiments were conducted, followed by two long-term monitoring studies. Considering the knowledge accumulated on monitoring the environmental conditions over 25 years, the authors have summarized the findings so far and converted them into a scenario that shows the causal relationship that would lead to the impact of seabed mining.
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Notes
- 1.
ISA has already published a draft version of the rules in 2019 (draft regulations on exploitation of mineral resources in the Area; ISBA/25/C/WP.1).
- 2.
The following documents are being prepared; Guidelines for the preparation of environmental management and monitoring plans, Guidelines for the establishment of baseline environmental data, standard and guidelines for the preparation and implementation of emergency response and contingency plans, Guidelines for the preparation of an environmental impact statement, Standard and Guidelines for environmental impact assessment process, Standard and Guidelines for the safe management and operation of mining vessels and installations, Guidelines on tools and techniques for hazard identification and risk assessments.
- 3.
Stakeholder Consultations on draft standards and guidelines to support the implementation of the Draft Regulations for Exploitation of mineral resources in the Area: https://www.isa.org.jm/stakeholder-consultations-draft-standards-and-guidelines-support-implementation-draft-regulations (Accessed 31 May 2021).
- 4.
Plume was defined in ISBA/25/LTC/6/Rev.1; A dispersion of seawater that contains dense sediment particles. Seabed-disturbance plume is a stream of water containing suspended particles of sea-floor sediment, abraded minerals and macerated benthic biota that emanates from the mining collector as a result of collector disturbance of the sea floor and spreads in a zone close to the sea floor. The far-field component of the seabed-disturbance plume is termed the “rain of fines”. Discharge plume is a stream of water containing suspended particles of sea floor sediment, abraded minerals and macerated benthic biota resulting from the separation, on board the mining ship, of the nodules from the water carrier, and spreads in a zone closer than seabed-disturbance plume to the ocean surface.
- 5.
In addition to these, water contents, particle size, cone penetration strength, shear strength, etc. are measured, but since they are not mentioned directly, the explanation is omitted in this paper.
- 6.
Foraminifera are generally included as a main component of meiobenthos, but this site is below the carbonate compensation depth (CCD); therefore, species that were difficult to count have been excluded from the quantitative data.
- 7.
In this paper, macrobenthos is synonymous with macrofauna by ISA; Animals retained on a 250- or 300-μm mesh, typically sorted and identified with a microscope, that include taxa such as polychaetes, bivalves, isopods and tanaids (ISBA/25/LTC/6/Rev.1.).
- 8.
In this paper, megabenthos is synonymous with megafauna by ISA; Animals large enough (larger than 2 cm) to be determined in photographs, proposed as key taxon (see taxonomy) for environmental impact assessment in deep-sea mining (ISBA/25/LTC/6/Rev.1.).
- 9.
The Janzen–Connell hypothesis is a theory to explain the maintenance of tree species diversity in tropical rainforests. According to the theory, there are host-specific herbivores, pathogens or other natural enemies for the child tree, so the environment around the parent tree is difficult to live in. As a result, the seeds grow a place far from the parent tree, and then the high diversity is maintained.
- 10.
When two species with the same niche exist in the same place, one is always excluded by competition, so it will not coexist stably in the absence of other environmental factors (Gause’s Law of competitive exclusion).
- 11.
A phenomenon in which the fitness of individuals belonging to a population increases as the population density increases. When the population density decreases, it becomes difficult to find a mating partner, and even if mating is possible, inbreeding may occur and the reproductive rate may decrease. Therefore, there is a threshold of density to maintain the population.
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This paper is based on results obtained from a project commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan.
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Fukushima, T., Tsune, A., Sugishima, H. (2022). Comprehensive Understanding of Seafloor Disturbance and Environmental Impact Scenarios. In: Sharma, R. (eds) Perspectives on Deep-Sea Mining. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87982-2_12
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