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For the commercial development of deep-sea mineral resources, the International Seabed Authority is engaged in wide ranging discussions to establish the Regulations on Exploitation. The core issue of the Regulations on Exploitation is how to protect the marine environment along with the royalty system that distributes the profits from such development. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates the protection of the marine environment in Part 12 (Articles 192-237) for the preservation of the marine environment, and in the 1994 Implementation Agreement, the protection of the marine environment at the stage of application for approval of the plan of work together with the Regulations on Exploration for the protection of the marine environment. For this purpose, certain obligations are imposed on the applicants. In the Regulations on Exploitation, financial systems such as environmental performance guarantee, insurance, and environmental compensation funds, which were not found in the Regulations on Exploration, are added to further specify the measures for marine environment protection generally stipulated in the 1982 Law of the Convention or 1994 Implementation Agreement. Regarding the financial system for marine environment protection, the Marine Environmental Protection and Conservation Informal Working Group meeting is revising the purpose of the environmental compensation fund. Among these financial system elements, it is judged that there is a possibility that the environmental performance guarantee and insurance may overlap considerably, and it is also thought that the establishment of the environmental compensation fund can also provide a substantial sum of money that will meet the purpose of the compensation fund in terms of securing its financial resources. In this paper, the question is posed as to whether or not this can be accomplished. In this respect, this paper examines the environmental performance guarantee, insurance, and environmental compensation fund, which are necessary for the protection of the marine environment of the deep seabed, but which can impose appropriate obligations on contractors for the commercial development of deep seabed mineral resources. At the same time as figuring out how it is operated in relation to relevant domestic laws, I would like to propose a plan to reflect the implications derived from the domestic law operation process in the Regulations on Exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manganese nodules were recovered within the deep subseafloor sediments (118.22 mbsf) at Site U1371 during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expedition 329 from the South Pacific Gyre (SPG). Because most manganese nodules exist on the seabed surface, nodules present in deep sediments are uncommon. Therefore, the growth origin of manganese nodules was identified through mineralogical and geochemical analyses. The manganese nodule was divided into the concentric layer outside the manganese region and the inner part of the phosphatized region consisting of manganese oxide minerals and carbonate fluorapatite (CFA) minerals, respectively. The two-dimensional element distribution analysis of Mn, Co, Ni, Sr and Cu, Zn with low Mn/Fe ratio confirmed that manganese nodules were formed predominantly by a hydrogenetic process and a biogenic process in certain manganese layers. As a result, the manganese nodule was continuously precipitated in SPG environments of oligotrophic open paleoocean conditions and rapidly buried with siliceous ooze sediments when the SPG changed to a eutrophic environment. It has been confirmed that manganese nodules found within deep subseafloor sediments could be used as a new proxy for the reconstruction of paleooceanographic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep-seabed test miner operated by a self-propelled mining system moving on soft soil is an essential device to secure floating and towing performances. The performances of the tracked vehicle are seriously influenced by noise factors such as the shear strength of the seafloor, bottom current, seafloor slope, speed of tracked vehicle, reaction forces of flexible hose, steering ratio, etc. Due to uncertainties related to noise factors, the design of a deep-sea manganese nodules test miner that satisfies target reliabilities is difficult. Therefore, reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) is required to guarantee system reliability under circumstances where uncertainties related to noise factors prevail. Among noise factors, the bottom current, a bimodal distribution, is censored due to the observation limit of measurement devices. Therefore, estimated distribution of the bottom current is inaccurate without considering these characteristics and the result of RBDO cannot be guaranteed. In this paper, we define censored data as unknown values over the limit of observation. If this data is estimated by using Akaike information criterion (AIC) that cannot consider the characteristics of censored data, the distribution of estimated data cannot guarantee accurate reliability. Therefore, censored AIC that can consider the characteristics of data is used to estimate accurate distribution of the bottom current. Finally, RBDO, under circumstances where uncertainties related to noise factors combined censored data are present, is performed on the mobility of a deep-sea manganese nodules test miner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August, 2013, we collected epifaunal megabenthos using a deep sea camera (DSC) around a benthic impact study (BIS) site. This was located in the KR5 block of the Korea Deep Ocean Study (KODOS) area in the Northeastern Pacific. The DSC was positioned at 6.8 2.9 m (SD) from the sea bottom and was operated from a position at 131°56.85' - 131°55.02'W for 2.3 h at a speed of 1-2 knot. The geographical features of the study area consisted of two structures; a trough in the middle and hills at the east and west sides. Sediment conditions were consistent within six blocks and were affected by slope and polymetallic nodule deposits. We analyzed 226 megafaunal species. Sipunculida comprised the highest percentage of individuals (39%), and the dominant epifaunal megabenthos were Hormathiidae sp., Primnoidae sp., Hexactinellida sp., Hyphalaster inermis, Freyella benthophila, Paelopatides confundens, Psychropotes longicauda, and Peniagone leander. More than 80% of the total density of megafauna occurred on sea plain (D- and E-blocks). We found two distinct groups in the community, one located on sea plains and the other along both sides of the sea slop. Our results suggest that geographical features such as slope and polymetalic nodule deposits are important in controlling the distribution of the epifaunal megabenthos around the KODOS area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]