headgraphic
loader graphic

Loading content ...

Deep Sea Mineral Resources and Habitat: Towards a Solid Environmental Impact Assessment

Speaker: Sandor Mulsow
[Announcement (PDF)]

Speaker Affiliation: Director,
Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources
International Seabed Authority
Kingston, Jamaica

Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 at 1 p.m. in 5-232

Abstract: The increasing interest in exploring the seafloor searching for new sources of minerals in the Area, provoke a series of challenges: legal, technical, environmental and societal. The UNCLOS 1982, the implementation agreements 1994 and 1995 set the legal frameworks for exploration of minerals at the sediments, ridges and seamounts of the world ocean included in the Area (region beyond national jurisdiction). To date the sole Instrument with jurisdiction on the regulation/administration and protection of the seafloor in the Area is the International Seabed Authority (ISA). I present here the advances and gaps of knowledge of the ISA’s efforts towards a solid EIA for the Area. Evidently a worldwide collaboration (academia/public/private institutions) is needed to achieve this goal.

Biography: Sandor Mulsow is a marine geologist whose major research interest is on environmental studies at the sediment-water interface, from shallow to deep sea waters. He has worked in more than 50 different countries on different international projects under the main objective of environmental monitoring of the oceans (water column, biota, and marine sediments), creating capacity and manpower building to undeveloped countries, from Africa to Latin America. Dr. Mulsow has worked at the International Atomic Energy Agency (Monaco), Universidad Austral de Chile (tenured professor), and currently is the Head of the Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources of the International Seabed Authority, Jamaica. He develops tools for deep sea monitoring and holds a US patent on one of them. He has created/funded a successful bilingual elementary and high school in Valdivia-Chile, strongly focused on nature and conservation awareness projects.