ISA Fact-check 2023/1 – Availability, content and accessibility of data and information of DeepData

July 2023

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) tasks ISA with a responsibility to promote scientific research in the international seabed area (the Area) and coordinate the sharing of the results and learnings that emerge from scientific research carried out in the Area. In addition, promoting the dissemination, exchange and sharing of scientific data and the outputs of deep-sea research, as well as increasing deep-sea literacy, are all listed as priorities under the ISA Action Plan for Marine Scientific Research in support of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

The primary source of scientific data on the Area and its resources, including environmental data, is the exploration work carried out by ISA contractors since 2001. These data are supplemented by historical datasets from the research carried out by registered pioneer investors prior to entry into force of UNCLOS and research carried out by States and international consortia of exploration companies dating back to the 1970s. Altogether, this represents more than 40 years of directed research on the Area and its resources. Managing these data, collected over many years, using different research and sampling techniques, different quality assurance protocols, and held in different collections according to different data standards, presents enormous challenges for ISA as the regulator of activities in the Area and the custodian of these data for the benefit of all humanity.

The ISA DeepData database was launched in 2019, following a lengthy process of planning and development, including in collaboration with the Legal and Technical Commission. It replaced and consolidated previous databases maintained by ISA, and was also the first ISA database to be allocated dedicated programmatic funding by Members of ISA.

In launching DeepData, ISA made publicly available for the first time the biggest and most complete global repository of environmental data and information on the Area and its overlying waters beyond national jurisdiction. As of May 2023, DeepData contains over 10 terabytes of data collected, which is roughly equivalent to 6.9 million Instagram uploads. The database is also widely used, with approximately 2.4 million hits from unique visitors in 2022 alone and more than 160 citations in scientific publications. This wealth of data and information has been critical to the development of environmental management plans in areas beyond national jurisdiction and to understanding regional scale and specificities. It should be noted that data processing activities remain ongoing as contractors continue to execute various analytical processes and submit new and revised data to the Secretariat.

In addition, ISA has established several strategic partnerships to enhance DeepData by improving the availability and accessibility of data and information. The linkage between DeepData and the Ocean Biodiversity System (OBIS) of UNESCO, established in 2022, has expanded the sharing of environmental data and increased the visibility of DeepData. In terms of its contribution to OBIS, DeepData records currently account for over 89,000 occurrence records or 15 per cent of data collected at depths below 3,000 metres. ISA is the first UN body to become a node to OBIS, adding a critical piece of information to the global knowledge base. Every data byte collected through deep-sea exploration adds critical new information about life in the ocean and assists with decision-making.

Furthermore, the ISA Secretariat has undertaken collaborative activities with various partners to improve the quality of DeepData. It is in this context that in 2020, the ISA Secretariat initiated a discussion with the Natural History Museum of London and the PEW Charitable Trusts to develop a small project as a pilot collaborative activity, and to support the ISA’s ongoing programme of taxonomy workshops. The project aimed to review the taxonomic data available for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, including those in ISA DeepData, and other public databases and published literature. Within this project, an analysis of the DeepData taxonomic data structure was to be undertaken, including to identify what biological data is captured, how it is structured in contractor reporting templates, and how it is represented on the online database. Work started in January 2021, with the final dataset used for the study downloaded in July 2021, and the study manuscript was shared with ISA in June 2022. Regrettably, the authors of the paper decided not to reflect feedback provided by the ISA Secretariat on the manuscript and ignored technical clarifications that were provided, leading to incorrect interpretations of many aspects of the database.  While the authors acknowledged that their study “illustrates some of the wider challenges and opportunities for biodiversity databases, in particular for developing their utility for both research and environmental policy,” they failed to address important issues of context, such as the fact that ISA reporting templates had already been updated prior to the release of the study and that many of the recommendations in the study had already been implemented by ISA in the time since the study was initiated and prior to its release.

The following paragraphs explain the measures and procedures developed by the Secretariat to leverage the value and potential of DeepData and address some of the issues raised by the study to realise the full potential of DeepData for advancing the knowledge of deep seabed environment.