For national and international policymakers, decisions on how to regulate — and whether to allow — exploitative human activities such as deep-sea mining require good information. A new study suggests that when it comes to the ocean floor, they may not have it. Only 0.001% of the deep seafloor has ever been captured by photo […]

  • Just 0.001% of the deep seafloor has ever been captured by photo or video images, a new study finds.

  • That which has been captured is “biased” and potentially unrepresentative: 65% of observations have been in the waters of the United States, Japan or New Zealand, according to the study.

  • Experts told Mongabay that policymakers at a wide range of international institutions should bear the study’s findings in mind, including those governing high seas fisheries, deep-sea mining, and the use of marine carbon dioxide sequestration systems.

Only 0.001% of the deep seafloor has ever been captured by photo or video images, the study found. And that which has been captured is “biased” and potentially unrepresentative: 65% of observations have been in the waters of the United States, Japan or New Zealand, according to the study.