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Welcome to the archives of Oceans Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on September 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on ocean health and economy. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Exploring the environmental and economic consequences of efforts to mine the seabed and unique deep-sea habitats for valuable minerals.
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Faced with a 2020 deadline, the International Seabed Authority has a daunting challenge in completing regulations that will fulfill its mandate to allow the mining of deep-sea ecosystems for minerals while protecting unique marine habitats.
As the International Seabed Authority meets to debate environmental regulations for the extraction of minerals from fragile ocean habitats, the debate grows between nations and corporations favoring mining and scientists concerned about irreversible impacts.
Mars is mapped in better detail than the ocean floor, which is why a project on the scale of some space missions was launched to change that. Listen to experts discuss how Seabed 2030 will work and what it could mean for marine conservation.
As the International Seabed Authority writes regulations to govern the mining of the ocean floor for valuable minerals, delegates at the U.N.-chartered organization’s recent meeting stressed the need to ensure unique deep ocean animals and habitats are protected.
European legislators have voted overwhelmingly for a resolution that advocates halting efforts to mine the seabed for minerals – until the environmental consequences of industrializing the high seas can be determined.
Researchers have developed a new way to test the effectiveness of immunotherapies by injecting enzymes from glowing deep-ocean crustaceans into cancer cells. But threats to the ocean from climate change and exploitation threaten marine life and its medicinal potential.
Researchers find that policies in Australia to compensate for the destruction of marine habitats from dredging, port construction and other developments are too poorly managed to prevent a loss of biodiversity.
Oceans Deeply talks with experts about seabed mining: how it could impact rare ecosystems, how much scientists know about the deep sea and the challenges of regulating industrial activity on the ocean floor.
Scientists have found a tiny sponge that may be the most abundant and important marine organism on a vast stretch of the ocean floor, which companies and nations want to mine for valuable minerals.
As the International Seabed Authority moves to permit the mining of unique deep-sea habitats, calls grow for it to disclose secretive deliberations about the environmental consequences of extracting valuable minerals from the ocean floor.
A review finds that just 77 studies of the population genetics of deep ocean invertebrate have been conducted since 1970 as plastic pollution, mining and other human activities increasingly imperil marine life of which little is known.
To date, only 5 percent of the sea floor has been mapped in detail, but an international consortium plans to map the rest over the next 13 years. The results could revolutionize our understanding of deep-sea biodiversity.
Hydrothermal vent fields on the seabed are rich in copper, gold and other valuable metals, but scientists have found that some are home to unique animals found nowhere else on Earth.
A review of five years of research highlights the importance of the high seas to the global ecosystem and the peril they face from climate change, pollution and other human impacts.
In the first of our new series “Ocean Elders,” celebrated oceanographer Sylvia Earle delivers an urgent message to the world about overfishing, climate change, pollution and other threats to the health of the ocean: Wake up and take action!
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