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environmental studies were too high compared to what was viewed as a
reasonable preliminary investment before a decision to mine, investors
would turn to a less costly long-term operation where they would be
authorized to cut a whole forest without having to make such complicated
preliminary studies. He endorsed Sharma’s recommendation to focus on
significant parameters in order to avoid measuring too much.
Characterizing this as a relevant observation, Smith said that a
balance had to be struck between what people would like to know and what
they needed to know about the ocean and the impacts.
Another participant recalled the calculation he had made earlier,
during the discussion on a design strategy for baseline studies (chapter 18
above), that one experiment would require several years of work by 21
taxonomists using conventional morphology. With molecular technology,
however, it would take 21 months to do the same project using one DGGE
machine, or a year using two machines, at a cost of 5,000 pounds sterling
for each and without need for specialized taxonomic knowledge. With the
right technology, the job could be done.
As a final suggestion, Sharma urged each working group to pick up
any existing protocol – for water-column observations or sediment
parameters, for example – and start working on it rather than beginning
from scratch, detailing the parameters that needed study and possible
methods of observation
Notes and References
1. H. Thiel and G Schriever (1990), Deep-sea mining, environmental impact and the
DISCOL project, Ambio 19(5), 245-250; D. Trueblood (1993), US Cruise report for BIE
II (NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS OCRM 4, United States National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, Office of Ocean and Coastal
Resource Management); Metal Mining Agency of Japan (1994), Japan Deep Sea
Impact Experiment (JET), August-September in 1994, R/V Yuzhmorgeologiya: Cruise
report; G. Tkatchenko, R. Kotlinski and V. Stoyanova (1996), Environmental studies
on a reference transect in the IOM pioneer area, The Proceedings of the Sixth (1996)
International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (Los Angeles, California,
May 26-31) 1:54-57; R. Sharma et al. (1997), Benthic environmental baseline
investigations in the manganese nodule area of the Central Indian Basin, The
Proceedings of the Seventh (1997) International Offshore and Polar Engineering
Conference (Honolulu, Hawaii, May 25-30) 1: 488-495.
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