standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

for environmental characterisation of these communities are not well
developed.
Prudent contractors have in the past and will probably continue in
the future to pursue opportunistic data and specimen collections from
pelagic communities during exploration cruises. Standardisation of
methods and integration of available data would be worthwhile to facilitate
comparisons between different collection efforts and to identify information
gaps that would have to be filled before commercial mining.
3.7. Summary
The above considerations are part of the scoping process of
environmental assessment and are directed toward the setting of priorities
for the development of environmental standards and collection of
environmental data. The next section integrates these considerations and
the anticipated phasing of the mining industry outlined in section 2 with the
list of recommendations provided by Prof. Craig Smith in his Workshop
background paper (chapter 3 above). The objective is to generate a
proposed set of priorities for the development of environmental standards
and for the acquisition of environmental data.
4. Suggested priorities
As outlined in section 2, the anticipated development scenario for
deep-seabed mining includes the ongoing exploration phase, a testing
phase for commercial mining systems and ultimately the establishment of
commercial mining operations. The first two development phases suggest
comparable phases for the establishment of environmental standards and
for the acquisition of environmental data (since the impact analysis must be
complete before the initiation of commercial mining). During the
exploration phase, there are two distinct types of efforts to consider:
1. Data collection efforts associated with opportunistic sampling, to be
carried out by the contractors during normal exploration cruises;
and
2. Specific scientific investigations that are required for adequate
impact assessment and that require long time frames for their
completion.
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