As sea-bed mining looms, researchers say better records of seafloor biodiversity are needed to assess its environmental impact. A company is expected to request authorization in July, for the first time ever, to mine the ocean floor for metals such as cobalt and nickel. At the same time, researchers warn that a crucial database that maps deep-sea biodiversity and that could factor into the decision to approve such a licence contains errors and data gaps.The International Seabed Authority (ISA), a body associated with the United Nations that oversees deep-sea mining in international waters, currently allows only mining exploration. According to its website, it has approved 17 companies and government entities to study the mining potential of the Clarion–Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a region of the sea floor that spans up to 6 million square kilometres of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean and that holds metal-rich clumps of sediment. Nauru Ocean...

By: Kiran Kumar Undergraduate engineering students in the Yonder Deep student organization have found a way to sharpen their marine robotics skills while working toward solutions to the climate crisis. The organization, now in its fifth year, aims to design and 3D print a low-cost, modular, and fully autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), that will enable researchers to affordably collect oceanographic and climate data. Yonder Deep’s ultimate goal is to design a torpedo-like AUV that will house a whole suite of sensors– temperature, pressure, hydrophones, – versatile enough to withstand the frigid waters of the Arctic as well as the churning coastal waters of Southern California. One of the first missions that the student team is working to help quantify is glacier melt and subsequent sea level rise. Arctic research instruments that utilize advanced sensors to measure the rate of glaciers melting already exist, but getting these within close proximity to...