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Abstract
This paper reviews the current poor state of our knowledge of the bathymetry of the seafloor (only approximately 15% has been mapped by modern bathymetric sonars) and discusses the efforts being made under the auspices of the Nippon Foundation gebco Seabed 2030 program to rectify this situation and to produce a publically available, complete map of the ocean basins that can be used to support UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 by 2030. It will be impossible to achieve the targeted level of sustainable development without a comprehensive map of the ocean floor, a fact recognized by the planners of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development who have identified “mapping the entire ocean floor and its processes” as a proposed priority area for the Decade. For this ambitious undertaking that will benefit all mankind to be achieved, we will need to ensure that the collection of the data needed to produce such maps will not be impeded. There are serious fiscal and technological challenges in trying to map the remaining unmapped 85% of the world’s oceans by the target date, but these can be overcome by collective efforts and technological innovation. Less obvious are the sometimes arbitrary regulatory barriers to achieving complete mapping of the seafloor that coastal states may present in their interpretation of Marine Scientific Research under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The recognition that the collection of bathymetric data in support of such a publicly-available global map is not categorized as msr under the context of Part xiii of the Law of the Sea Treaty would go a long way to help meet this critical goal.
Publication Date
2-11-2021
Journal Title
Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction
Publisher
Brill
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Document Type
Book Chapter
Recommended Citation
L. A. Mayer and Roach, A., “The Quest to Completely Map the World’s Oceans in Support of Understanding Marine Biodiversity and the Regulatory Barriers We Have Created”, in Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction / Center for Ocean Law and Policy , vol. 24, M. Nordquist and Long, R., Eds. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Publishers, 2021, pp. 149-156.
Comments
This is an open access book chapter published by Brill in Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction in 2021, available online: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004422438_009