Strategy for 'No-Mining Zones' in the Deep Sea
Tuesday, July 10, 2018 - 12:50
in Earth & Climate
An international team of researchers has developed a comprehensive set of criteria to help the International Seabed Authority (ISA) protect local biodiversity from deep-sea mining activities. These guidelines should help identify areas of particular environmental importance where no mining should occur. The new ecological framework is a set of 18 quantitative metrics to assess whether the number, shapes, sizes and locations of proposed zones will be sufficient to protect threatened habitats and species.