Ocean Conservation & Tidalpunk

Norway has suspended plans to start giving licences for deep-sea mining next year that had faced opposition from environment groups and international institutions, a party allied with the centre-left government said on Sunday.

"There will be no announcement of exploration rights for deep-sea mining in 2024 or 2025," the party said in a statement.

an eco-terrorist to some and a brave environmentalist to others

Watson does not describe himself as a protester. He regards himself as an enforcer of international treaties on whaling and animal welfare.

• Antarctic krill trap vast amounts of carbon from the atmosphere in the ocean floor through their sinking fecal pellets, a new study reports.
• The annual amount is similar to that stored by “blue carbon habitats” such as mangroves, seagrass and salt marshes, highlighting the importance of protecting krill.
• Global warming, melting ice and overfishing pose threats to krill, say researchers who call for new fishing policies to conserve them.

The study

I feel like I'm the only one that gets inspired by these videos, but just in case someone else has the motivation to watch a video and feels the joy of tangible progress, I thought I would share anyway.

• In the next 50 years, 80% of the Maldives may become uninhabitable, creating human security and livelihood issues of epic proportions for its nearly 400,000 population.
• The rise in ocean temperatures and acidification are leaving severe impacts on coral reefs, affecting both tourism and fisheries in the Maldives and also damaging the country’s critical first line of natural defense.
• Before a 1998 El Niño bleaching event, the archipelago’s coral reefs remained in good condition, but it killed a significant portion of the fragile ecosystem, which continues to be impacted by climate change.
• Among the solutions proposed are the prosperity plans under the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) to help countries overcome debt traps and attract investments through debt for environmental swaps.

Researchers seeking the construction of a massive underwater structure to shield Antarctica’s melting ice sheets from ongoing erosion by seawater could be met with unexpected international challenges, new research reveals.

While scientists debate the logistics of installing a proposed gigantic undersea curtain to protect Antarctic glaciers against melt from warmer seawater they encounter, researchers at Kobe University are looking at a different problem: how the questions of international authority and related security and sovereignty issues might impact such efforts.

The Antarctic Treaty System

(...) In December 1959, the first twelve countries signed the treaty to protect their scientific operations around the Antarctic. Treaty meetings since then have managed to keep their eyes on science, avoiding discussion of territorial disputes and instead pushing for environmental regulations.(...)

Expert knowledge of how early sea surface temperature measurements were taken has helped to explain a cold anomaly in early 20th century climate

Research highlights impacts of military sonar devices on dolphin behaviour

Explore the discovery of a massive coral in the Solomon Islands, visible from space and teeming with marine life

After the treaty was adopted last year by the United Nations, more than 100 countries have signified their intent to ratify it, but so far only 14 countries have. Only around 8 percent of the oceans are currently considered protected.

Though most animals, including humans, are born, age, and eventually die, some species can break away from this traditional lifecycle: they seemingly defy age and revert to younger versions of themselves.

The study

On June 26, the Norwegian Ministry of Energy released a proposal for the first licensing round for mining of seabed minerals, setting out areas where companies could eventually apply for licenses. The proposal included a total of 386 blocks, constituting nearly 106,000 square kilometers (40,900 square miles), an area about the size of Iceland, that could potentially be used for mining activities.

The licensing round proposal included a three-month public consultation period, which closed Sept. 26.

Terje Aasland, Norway’s minister of energy, previously stated that he intended to begin awarding mining licenses in the “first half of 2025” with a view to starting commercial extraction in 2030.

The licenses due to be awarded will be exploitation licenses — not exploration licenses.