How can humanity's extended reach be harnessed for conservation?

The Battle over Deep Sea Mining in the South Pacific

By Michael Casey

Canadian-based mining company Nautilus is poised to potentially set off  a modern day gold rush to the seafloor, a prospect that troubles deep-sea scientists and environmentalists who fear this could lay waste to some of the world’s most diverse and poorly understood ecosystems, as well as impact remote villages in Papua New Guinea.

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Op-Ed: Why Should We Care About Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vent Communities?

By Kim Fulton-Bennett, MBARI

The biodiversity of deep-sea hydrothermal vents is relatively well understood but we know much less about the ability of vent communities to withstand human impacts not to mention our ability to prevent or mitigate these impacts. 

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Sea Drones of the Southern Ocean

By Munyaradzi Makoni

SciDev.net

Satellites only measure the ocean surface and information about the ocean interior is missing. A tailor-made fleet of autonomous ocean gliders are dramatically reducing the cost of collecting data in some of the ocean's most remote places. 

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China Looks for Top Spot in the Antarctic

By Liu Hongqiao

A Chinese state-owned distant-water fishery company said China should multiply its krill harvest in the Antarctic, yet regulations at home and abroad are moving towards stringent management. How will the dragon dance on the ice?

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