The worldwide demand for metals and rare-earth elements is increasing, fuelled by developing
economies and the growth of high-technology green industries. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, a ~6 million km2 region of abyssal deep sea, contains vast reserves of polymetallic nodules, potato-sized accretions of minerals that sit on the seafloor surface. These nodules are a huge potential source of cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel (amongst other key and rare metals), and this has led to recent and rapid growing commercial interest in mining this region. From a conservation perspective, there is a clear and pressing need to quickly improve our understanding of the biodiversity of the CCZ, the largest mineral-resource exploration
area in the world, before exploitation commences.
Under international law, the CCZ lies in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ), and thus falls under the legal and regulatory mandate of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Sixteen
nodule-mining exploration contract areas have been approved by the ISA within the CCZ, each up to 75,000 km2 in area, despite an almost complete absence of baseline data on the abundance, diversity and ecology of the large animals (megafauna: >2 cm in size, such as cnidarians and echinoderms). The few studies conducted suggest that 70-90% of species are new to science. The megafauna constitute an important component of the biodiversity in the abyssal CCZ, and play a significant role in deep-sea ecosystem function including carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. It has been hypothesised that nodule-mining operations will have a drastic ‘near-field’ impact on the megafauna within directly mined areas, as well as impacts in ‘far-field’ regions subjected to mining plume deposition.
The ISA has stipulated that prior to exploitation, a benthic biological baseline study must be undertaken for each exploration contract area. However, these studies are being conducted separately within each contract area with few of the results made open access, with little information on data standards and with almost no synthesis or collaboration between contractors over the entire CCZ. Furthermore, this lack of synthesis extends to the Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEIs), proposed ‘marine protected areas’ that are set aside for preservation based on a precautionary approach. This project has led to a better understanding of which species inhabit the vast CCZ region (regardless of contract area), and has effectively communicated those results, enabling more informed decision-making and the effective management of this vast area of the ocean.
