Humans have visually documented around 1,470 square miles of the ocean floor, which represents only 0.001%. As per recent research. This area is slightly larger than Rhode Island.
The report, released on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, raises questions about whether the nation will pursue underwater mining for essential minerals.
Some researchers argue that our knowledge about the seabed is limited, suggesting that more exploration is necessary to responsibly advance extraction efforts.
“More information is always beneficial for making informed decisions,” said Katie Krovbell, a deep-sea explorer and founder of the Ocean Discovery League, a nonprofit focused on seabed exploration.
Understanding the deep sea is crucial for grasping how climate change and human actions impact the ocean, she mentioned. Nonetheless, the study also emphasizes the fundamental excitement that motivates many marine scientists.
“Just think about what lies in the remaining 99.999%,” Dr. Bell commented.
Visual documentation efforts began in 1958 with the deep-sea Trieste. Images collected since then have led biologists to discover new species and understand their interactions within marine ecosystems.
Studying deep-sea organisms on the surface is challenging, as few, if any, are adapted to high-pressure environments. Hence, photos and videos are invaluable.
“Certain habitats cannot be sampled from ships,” said Craig McClain, a marine biologist at the University of Louisiana who was not part of the study. “You need to utilize ROVs for that,” he added.
Visualizing the seafloor is also beneficial for geologists. Prior to the advent of remotely operated vehicles and crewed submersibles, researchers had to drag heavy buckets from their ships to see what they contained.
“They will just handle rocks without context,” stated Emily Chin, a geologist at the Institute of Oceanography, who was not involved in the current study. “It’s akin to studying meteors and attempting to understand another planet’s processes.”
By analyzing rock formations on the seabed through photos and videos, scientists gain insights into basic Earth processes. This knowledge also aids businesses in evaluating potential mining and oil and gas sites.
However, accessing the ocean floor is costly in both financial and temporal aspects. Dr. Bell mentioned that exploring a one-square-kilometer area of the deep seabed could cost between $2 million and $20 million. Planning can take years, while things can go wrong in a matter of hours. During a dive, progress is slow, and ROVs tethered to the ship have limited operational ranges, making repositioning tedious.
Given numerous obstacles, Dr. Bell sought to determine how much of the seafloor had been observed and documented.
Dr. Bell and her team compiled records from over 43,000 deep-sea dives, assessed the resulting images, and estimated the extent of the areas documented.
They estimated that 2,130-3,823 square kilometers of the deep seabed have been imaged, equating to about 0.001% of the total seabed.
“I anticipated the figure would be small, but I didn’t expect it to be quite so limited,” Dr. Bell remarked. “We’ve been conducting these efforts for nearly 70 years.”
The study excluded dives in regions where data isn’t publicly accessible, such as military operations and oil exploration. Even if additional documented areas are included, Dr. Bell expressed, “I doubt it would significantly change the current understanding.”
Much of what marine biologists know about the deep seabed is derived from limited areas. The authors argue that this situation mirrors extrapolating data from a smaller area than Houston to represent the entire planet’s land surface.
The survey also indicated that high-income nations conduct 99.7% of all deep-sea dives, led by the US, Japan, and New Zealand. Most dives occur within 200 nautical miles of these countries. This means that the focus of exploration might skew the representation of the studied marine environments.
“Many experts around the globe possess deep ocean knowledge,” Dr. Bell stated. “However, they lack the necessary tools to perform the research and exploration they aspire to.”
The findings reveal that dives are often concentrated in specific areas, such as the Mariana Trench and Monterey Canyon, focusing on similar features like hydrothermal vents. Since the 1980s, most deep dives have been in shallower coastal waters, leaving vast expanses of the deep ocean uncharted.
“This study provides a valuable overview of our current status and emphasizes where we still need to explore in the deep sea,” Dr. McClain noted.
Source: www.nytimes.com
