Stakeholder Workshops with the Deep-Sea Mining Industry

OceanICU held the first online workshop with Deep Sea Mining industry stakeholders in August. It was attended by 16 participants comprising representatives of the deep sea mining and associated industries, advisory bodies, management and responsible authorities, as well as NGOs and researchers. Building on previous workshops held with fishing industry stakeholders, this event followed a similar format with the OceanICU team members providing an overview of the project and its aims, and sharing our current understanding of ocean carbon and deep sea mining. A Q&A session followed with active discussions. A mental model of the deep sea mining-carbon system was co-produced during the workshop, including identifying the elements that should be included in such a system, and the types of links and interactions between those elements. 

Together with the previous workshops, we are building an understanding of the links between ocean carbon and society, through human activities and ecosystem services. We are also building an understanding of where ocean industry users see their place in this system. Going forward, OceanICU will use this information to develop future scenarios, inform management/policy questions, and provide input to the development of decision support tools and outputs from the project. We also intend to build on the outputs of the workshops with future stakeholder engagement events and workshops. To get involved, you can sign up to the stakeholder panels here.