In celebration of the International Day of Biological Diversity, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is thrilled to announce a new funding opportunity for taxonomy projects focused on deep-sea species.

On this occasion of the International Day of Biological Diversity, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) wishes to celebrate the diversity of life that resides in the depths of our oceans and acknowledge the role of deep-sea exploration in advancing scientific knowledge and understanding of the deep sea.

From 12 to 16 December 2022, the Secretariat of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) participated in the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP-15, Part 2) held in Montreal, Canada. This was the opportunity to engage at different levels in the discussions pertaining to the adoption of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and ensure complementarity with other international processes.

The Secretariat of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), together with Argentina, South Africa, the European Commission, the Secretariat of the Convention for the Biological Diversity (CBD), the Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer (Ifremer, France), the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea (MABIK), the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) of IOC/UNESCO and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), launched a new initiative called the “Sustainable Seabed Knowledge Initiative (SSKI)”.

The Secretariat of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the Republic of France and the Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer (Ifremer, France) announced on 27 May 2022 the selection of Dr. Ranju Radhakrishnan from India as postdoctoral fellow in deep-sea taxonomy.