Science brief with IUCN
We know very little about life in our oceans! Even less about what is called the high seas - everything that is beyond 370km (200 nautical miles) off the coast. We use the term areas beyond national jurisdiction when we talk about what covers 50% of the surface of the planet and close to 90% of its habitable volume. We often hear this little dig that says that man knows the moon better than the depths
of the oceans... The lack of knowledge and understanding of the composition and functioning of marine ecosystems in the high seas is acknowledged as one of the major barriers to their protection and sustainable management of their resources.
This expedition at sea is part of a project developed and coordinated by IUCN on Conservation and sustainable exploitation of biodiversity associated with two types of ecosystems that we found in majority in areas beyond national jurisdiction, in the South West Indian Ocean: seamounts and hydrothermal vents. These two types of ecosystems are threatened by human activities at sea: on the one hand over exploitation
of fishing resources and potential destruction of habitats through bad practice of some fishing methods
and, on the other hand by emerging mining exploration with the aim of exploiting mineral resources. The seriousness of these threats stems from a problem of time difference between the rate of growth and reproduction of the organisms that make up these ecosystems (extremely slow) and the rate at which the ecosystem is exploited or the habitat damaged - or even destroyed. With our current knowledge, we do not know whether the impacted ecosystem can recover and, if so,
how fast. To this is added a crucial problem, a number of species that make up these ecosystems are
endemic- they are found nowhere else on the planet. There are over 200,000 seamounts with an elevation
of over 1000m above the ocean floor in the ocean. Their role and significance for the surrounding marine biodiversity are increasingly documented; their connectivity more and more studied. This expedition at sea will help improve our knowledge of the Walters Shoal, a group of seamounts that lies 700km off the south coasts of Madagascar. It is a unique place in the high seas - its summit area reaches only 18m below the surface!