World Ocean Radio - Deep Sea
Insurance is everywhere, established to transfer risk or to compensate for loss. Deep-sea mining has attracted much attention lately, as we look to offshore exploration and extraction for energy and mineral resources. As the UN International Seabed Authority deliberates standards and regulations related to drilling into the ocean floor, insurers of deep-sea risk are calculating potential loss as potentially so great that no coverage would be adequate to cover the costs of consequence, and no payment large enough to mitigate the risk of deep-sea mining.
"The state of the ocean is not good." So states Vidar Helgesen in the forward to the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) State of the Ocean Report that was released in May. This week on World Ocean Radio we are summarizing the findings.
Bio-regions on Earth are organized into types, then realms, and are further distinguished and mapped for planning, strategizing, developing, and as a tool for protection of the planet. A major trouble with bio-regional mapping is that it neglects nearly 83 percent of the ocean–beyond marine protected areas–leaving the high seas and deep sea unaddressed and vulnerable.
In part three of this 3-part series, we continue to explore the recent publication related to marine biomimetics and the deep sea, identifying the seven broad categories of biomimetic design, discussing each with examples of application, technological invention, and as effective solution models for response to negative human intervention and climate change, and for ocean protection and conservation.
In these three episodes of World Ocean Radio we are exploring a recent publication entitled “A Forgotten Element in the Blue Economy: Marine Biomimetics and Inspiration from the Deep Sea,” authored by Robert Blasiak from the Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden. The article identifies seven broad categories of biomimetic design: adhesion, anti-fouling, armor, buoyancy, movement, sensory, and stealth. In this 3-part series we'll discuss each with examples of application, technological invention, and as effective solution models for response to negative human intervention and climate change, and for ocean protection and conservation.
Over the next few editions of World Ocean Radio we will be discussing a recent publication entitled “A Forgotten Element in the Blue Economy: Marine Biomimetics and Inspiration from the Deep Sea,” authored by Robert Blasiak from the Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden. The article identifies seven broad categories of biomimetic design: adhesion, anti-fouling, armor, buoyancy, movement, sensory, and stealth. In this 3-part series we'll discuss each with examples of application, technological invention, and as effective solution models for response to negative human intervention and climate change, and for ocean protection and conservation.
This week the multi-part RESCUE series continues with an examination of familiar products derived from the ocean that we use to support our ways of life, our well-being and our health: from vitamins and supplements to pain and cancer treatments. And we discuss the future of exploration and exploitation of resources as the bio-prospecting rush heats up. How are we regulating extraction from the ocean and seafloor? Who owns the proprietary rights to marine resources, and what criteria are applied to protect biodiversity, ocean ecosystems and future resource potential to revolutionize medicine and treat disease?
RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.
This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing an emerging new phenomenon called the Global Deep Ocean Water Market and the food industry companies that are extracting salt water from the ocean depths, desalinating, trading as deep ocean water futures, and packaging for distribution and sale.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-eight of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we talk about batteries, increasingly in demand as we push toward a carbon-neutral future. There is a quandary built into this solution: the extraction of rare metals, the push for mining permits on land and sea, the waste and by-product, the emissions, and the collateral damage to the environment is all reminiscent of the fossil fuel paradigm. Is this old strategy, dressed in new clothing, a mistake?
In 2019 a partnership was announced between The Nippon Foundation and the International Hydrographic Organization to undertake the GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project that aims to bring together all available data to produce A General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean by 2030. This week on World Ocean Radio we outline the purposes of the project, seen as a major contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 14): to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.
In this episode, part two of a 2-part series on deep sea mining, we pick up where we left off by taking on the question of "what's next?" in the wake of the failures of the Nautilus deep sea mining venture in Papua New Guinea. We discuss the challenges for future exploration and extraction of rare earth minerals used in alternative energy production and question how we can justify taking these resources in our quest to develop new and innovative technologies for the 21st century and beyond.
There has long been public opposition to deep sea mining, a technology that extracts resources from the ocean floor. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill discusses the Solwara 1 deep sea mining experiment in Papua New Guinea and poses questions about the meaning of the project and its impacts on the environment and both local and national economies. And he highlights some of the various groups mounting opposition and legal action against the principle Nautilus Minerals and the various holding and investment companies involved with the project.
The ocean is continually and exhaustively over-exploited: over-fishing by international fisheries, sand mining for construction projects and artificial islands, coral reefs and marine species for medical advances, and deep sea mining for minerals. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the controversial Solwara One project proposed by Nautilus Inc. for mining minerals offshore Papua New Guinea. We share outcomes from the Nautilus Annual Meeting and read a selection of comments from community members opposed to the project.
