standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

e located, there was a variation in sediment types and hence in physicochemical
conditions and biological species, and probably also in biomass,
diversity and other factors. Thus, India and all other contractors would need
detailed baseline data on the entire area they had claimed; environmental
information from the test and reference sites alone were not enough to
represent the entire mining area.
In mining an average of 10 kilograms of nodules per square metre,
an area of about 300 km²/yr would be disturbed. Such an area was not
large compared to the rest of the ocean, amounting to 0.4% of the 75,000-
km² claim area. Even if the affected area were ten times larger, it would
still be much smaller than the entire ocean area. Rather than devising a
complete list of environmental data to be collected, the Authority should
select critical parameters that had to be monitored, given the small size of
the mining areas and zones of influence.
He then listed what the Authority was expected to do: develop
guidelines, which it had already been doing; prescribe standard protocols,
which it was in the process of doing; eventually specify acceptable limits for
impact on various parameters, which the contractors would like to know
before or while developing their mining systems; and regulate the
monitoring of impacts.
The parameters should be placed into different categories such as
critical, important or routine (less important). It should be made clear which
parameters were most crucial for baseline data and for impact assessment.
In addition, at some time in the future indicator parameters had to be
identified, to serve as a good reference of what the impact would do and
what should be looked at. Protocols should be defined for data collection,
sampling, subsampling, analysis and storage. Acceptable limits of impact
should be defined if possible, and the contents of environmental
statements and the format for data archival should be specified. Protocols
had already been suggested for such topics as the study of marine benthos,
effects of deep-ocean mining, sediment dispersion and other impacts.
Manuals and guides prepared by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission (IOC) could also form the basis for preparing protocols.
Finally, if the Workshop could not complete this massive job, he
extended an offer to host a further meeting at NIO in Goa the following year
to discuss and recommend standard protocols for environmental data and
information.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 497