OBIS ISA

The International Seabed Authority (ISA), established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the Convention) and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the Convention, is the organization through which States Parties to the Convention organize and control activities in the international seabed area (the Area). As part of its mandate, ISA is required to take the measures necessary to ensure the effective protection for the marine environment from harmful effects that may arise from the activities carried out in the Area. In addition, ISA is required to promote and encourage the conduct of marine scientific research in the Area and coordinate and disseminate the results of such research and analysis, when available. The ISA is also specifically mentioned in the Convention as the primary international competent organization through which States Parties have to cooperate to establish marine scientific research programmes in the Area for the benefit of developing States. As of June 2021, ISA has entered into thirty-one contracts (31) for exploration of mineral resources, involving twenty-one (21) countries. The vast majority relates to the exploration of polymetallic nodules (19 contracts) in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ) in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Further contracts have also been signed for the exploration of polymetallic sulphides (7 contracts) in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts (5 contracts) in the Western Pacific Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean. ISA holds centralized data of public and private information on marine mineral resources and environmental baseline data acquired by exploration contractors during their exploration activities. The environmental data, including biological, physical and geochemical parameters of the seafloor and water column ecosystems, is accessible to the public through the “ISA Deep Seabed and Ocean Database” (DeepData) (URL: http://data.isa.org.jm).