standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

side. Exploration contractors will be required to report annually in writing to
ISA on the results of their monitoring programme, including submission of
monitoring data and related information. In addition to baseline monitoring,
contractors will be required to generate an environmental impact
assessment for all aspects of test mining and then to monitor the
environmental impacts of any mining tests.
1.2. Gaps in knowledge of deep-sea ecosystems
Although a number of scientific environmental studies have been
conducted in the claim areas in the North Pacific and Indian Oceans,
numerous important ecological aspects of these abyssal habitats remain
very poorly understood. Poorly understood characteristics include:
i. Community structure, at the species level, of dominant faunal
elements at the seafloor, in particular the macrofauna (animals
less than 2 cm and >250 microns in smallest dimension) and
meiofauna (animals 42 µm in smallest
dimension). Species-level structure is poorly known because of
the shortage of taxonomic experts to identify the deep-sea
fauna and because most species collected in the nodule
provinces are new to science (they have not been formally
described in the scientific literature).
ii. Geographical ranges of the dominant macrofaunal and
meiofaunal species likely to be impacted (and potentially
exterminated) by nodule mining. Without knowledge of the
ranges of dominant species living in the claim areas, it is
impossible to realistically predict the likelihood of extinction
from large-scale habitat disturbance such as that resulting from
nodule mining.
iii. Resistance and resilience (i.e., recovery times) of seafloor
communities to nodule-mining disturbance. Although a number
of simulated impact studies have been conducted 74 , they have
not reproduced the full scale and intensity of actual mining
disturbances, and have been forced to work with relatively low
levels of sampling replication.
53 INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY