Environmental Issues of Deep-Sea Mining

This volume discusses environmental issues associated with deep-sea mining, with an emphasis on potential impacts, their consequences and the policy perspectives. The book describes the methods and technologies to assess, monitor and mitigate mining impacts on marine environments, and also suggests various approaches for environmental management when conducting deep-sea mining. The volume brings together information and data for researchers, contractors, mining companies, regulators, and NGOs working in the field of deep-sea mining.

Section 1 highlights the various environmental issues and discusses methods and approaches that can help in developing environmentally sustainable deep-sea mining.

Section 2 details the results and outcomes of studies related to impact assessment of deep-sea mining, and proposes methods for monitoring.

Section 3 discusses the need and means for developing data standards and their application to deep-sea mining.

Section 4 discusses the policies, approaches, and practices related to deep-sea mining, suggests formats for developing environmental impact statements (EIS) and environmental management plans (EMP), and describes national and international regulations for environmental management.

• Deep-sea mining
• Environmental management plan
• Environmental impact statement
• Economics of deep-sea mining
• Sustainable deep-seabed resource mining
• Organism activity on nodule growth
• Deep-sea mining technologies
• Commercial use of deep-sea minerals
• International Seabed Authority
• UN convention on the law of the sea
• Deep-sea mining regulations
• Marine mining impact
• mineral resources
• marine and freshwater sciences

• CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, India

  Rahul Sharma

Dr. Rahul Sharma (retired) was a Chief Scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India. He received his PhD in Marine Science from Goa University in 1997. His research interests include development of underwater photography for deep-sea exploration, environmental impact assessment for deep-sea mining, and application of environmental data for deep-sea mining and environmental conservation. He is the editor of the book on 'Deep-sea mining: resource potential, technical and environmental considerations' published by Springer in 2017 and has undertaken several assignments for international research organizations, academic institutions and the International Seabed Authority.

Policies and ethics