International Seabed Authority

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The International Seabed Authority (ISA) (French: Autorité internationale des fonds marins, Spanish: Autoridad Internacional de los Fondos Marinos) is an intergovernmental body based in Kingston, Jamaica, that was established to organize and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, an area underlying most of the world’s oceans. It is an autonomous organization having a relationship agreement with the United Nations.

1 Origin
2 Current Activities
3 Controversy
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Origin

The Authority, in existence since 1994, was established and its tasks were defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as refined by the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI (seabed provisions) of the Convention. The Convention defines this deep seabed area and its resources as “the common heritage of mankind”. The Authority has 155 members, composed of all parties to the Law of the Sea Convention.^[1]

Two principal organs establish the policies and govern the work of the Authority: the Assembly, in which all members are represented, and a 36-member Council elected by the Assembly. Council members are chosen according to a formula designed to ensure equitable representation of countries from various groups, including those engaged in seabed mineral exploration and the land-based producers of minerals found on the seabed. The Authority holds one annual session, usually of two weeks' duration. Its thirteenth session was held in Kingston in July 2007.

The Authority operates by contracting with private and public corporations and other entities authorizing them to explore, and eventually exploit, specified areas on the deep seabed for mineral resources. The Convention also established a body called the Enterprise which is to serve as the Authority’s own mining operator, but no concrete steps have been taken to bring this into being.

[edit] Current Activities

The Authority has a budget of $5.8 million a year and a staff of some 40 people. The first Secretary-General of the Authority is Satya Nandan of Fiji, now serving his third four-year term since his initial election in 1996.

The exploration system envisaged in the Law of the Sea Convention, overseen by the Authority, came to life with the signature in 2001/02 of 15-year contracts with seven organizations that had applied for specific seabed areas in which they were authorized to explore for polymetallic nodules. In 2006 a German entity was added to the list.

The eight current contractors are: Yuzhmorgeologya (Russian Federation); Interoceanmetal Joint Organization (IOM) (Bulgaria, Cuba, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Russian Federation); the Government of the Republic of Korea; China Ocean Minerals Research and Development Association (COMRA) (China); Deep Ocean Resources Development Company (DORD) (Japan); Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer (IFREMER) (France); the Government of India, and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources of Germany.

All but one of the current areas of exploration are in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, in the Equatorial North Pacific Ocean south and southeast of Hawaii. The remaining area, being explored by India, is in the Central Indian Basin of the Indian Ocean.^[2]

Each area is limited to 150,000 square kilometers, of which half is to be relinquished to the Authority after eight years. Each contractor is required to report once a year on its activities in its assigned area. So far, none of them has indicated any serious move to begin commercial exploitation.

The Authority’s main legislative accomplishment to date has been the adoption in 2000 of regulations governing exploration for polymetallic nodules.^[3]^[4] These resources, also called manganese nodules, contain varying amounts of manganese, cobalt, copper and nickel. They occur as potato-sized lumps scattered about on the surface of the ocean floor, mainly in the central Pacific Ocean but with some deposits in the Indian Ocean.

The Council of the Authority began work in August 2002 on another set of regulations, covering polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich crusts--rich sources of such minerals as copper, iron, zinc, silver and gold, as well as cobalt. The sulphides are found around volcanic hot springs, especially in the western Pacific Ocean, while the crusts occur on oceanic ridges and elsewhere at several locations around the world. The Council decided in 2006 to prepare separate sets of regulations for sulphides and for crusts, with priority given to sulphides. It completed a provisional first reading of the sulphides text in July 2007 and agreed to continue this task in 2008.

In addition to its legislative work, the Authority organizes annual workshops on various aspects of seabed exploration, with emphasis on measures to protect the marine environment from any harmful consequences. It disseminates the results of these meetings through publications.

In 2006 the Authority established an Endowment Fund to Support Collaborative Marine Scientific Research on the International Seabed Area. The Fund will aid experienced scientists and technicians from developing countries to participate in deep-sea research organized by international and national institutions. A campaign was launched in February 2008 to identify participants, establish a network of cooperating bodies and seek outside funds to augment the initial $3 million endowment from the Authority.^[5]

Contrary to early hopes that seabed mining would generate extensive revenues for both the exploiting countries and the Authority, no technology has been developed for gathering deep-sea minerals at costs that can compete with land-based mines. The general consensus is that economic mining of the ocean depths is decades away. In addition, the United States, with some of the most advanced ocean technology in the world, has not yet ratified the Law of the Sea Convention and is thus not a member of the Authority.

[edit] Controversy

The exact nature of the ISA's mission and authority has been questioned by opponents of the Law of the Sea Treaty who are generally skeptical of multilateral engagement by the United States.^[6] The United States is the only major maritime power that has not ratified the Convention, with one of the main anti-ratification arguments being a charge that the ISA is flawed or unnecessary. In its original form, the Convention included certain provisions that some found objectionable, such as:

Imposition of permit requirements, fees and taxation on seabed mining; ban on mining absent ISA permission
Use of collected money for wealth redistribution in addition to ISA administration
Mandatory technology transfer

Because of these concerns, the United States pushed for modification of the Convention, obtaining a 1994 Agreement on Implementation that somewhat mitigates them and thus modifies the ISA's authority. Despite this change the United States has not ratified the Convention and so is not a member of ISA, although it sends sizable delegations to participate in meetings as an observer. On October 31, 2007 the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate, by a vote of 17 to 4, recommended ratification; no date has yet been set for action by the full Senate.^[7]