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had been used to look at resedimentation impacts, but not in habitats
ecologically analogous to areas like the CCFZ. The ecology of the
oligotrophic deep sea was so different from that of shallow waters or even
the continental slope that it was difficult to extrapolate results.
A biologist suggested that turbidite flows might be the nearest
natural event to deep-sea mining. A paper on one such event, at least
1000 years ago on the Madeira Abyssal Plain (MAP) in the northeast
Atlantic Ocean, 26 concluded that it had badly affected polychaetes but the
diversity of nematodes had been reduced only slightly (see chapter 16
below). This followed a pattern seen in shallow water, that larger animals
such as polychaetes were much more affected by such events than
nematodes. One reason might have to do with how they fed: nematodes
were suspension feeders, not surface feeders. Another explanation might
concern scale: a nematode was readily picked up and placed elsewhere,
just as a high wind that might blow a man over and break his skull merely
moved an insect from one place to another.
Another participant noted that there had been studies of volcanic
ash deposition in a shallower environment, foram distributions, turbidite
flows, slumping and mass wasting. However, many such events were
difficult to date because they had happened so long ago. The authors of
the paper on the MAP site were unsure whether the effects they had
observed were due to low production or to the historical event. Not only
were these events in different environments, they also seemed like a
fundamentally different kind of phenomenon because they involved burial
or deposition on top, not completely rechurning the sediments. Thus, in
terms of both habitat and kind of disturbance, it was hard to compare such
natural phenomena with what might be expected from mining.
Economic value of seabed biota
Asked whether the life on the ocean bottom had any economic
value aside from its worth as an ecosystem, Smith responded by citing
biodiversity and the use of genetic diversity in biotechnology. He mentioned
his collaboration with a biotechnology company from San Diego, California,
that was interested in prospecting an extreme environment for unusual
genes that could be used in products such as cold-water detergents. Its
interest in the deep sea was due to the tremendous diversity and extreme
biological conditions there, including low temperature and high pressure.
The CCFZ contained great evolutionary diversity and considerable genetic
resources of potential use in biotechnology. The company wanted him to
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