FOI2023/00330: NERC Smartex project - photos of OMCO test mining area
Case reference FOI2023/00330
Published 1 September 2023
Request
Request Received: 2 June 2023
I am writing under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the release of information relating to NERC's funding of the Seabed Mining And Resilience To EXperimental impact project, Smartex (NERC Reference NE/T003537/1) http://gotw.nerc.ac.uk/list_full.asp?pcode=NE%2FT003537%2F1&cookieConsent=A
The expedition blog for the Smartex expedition JC241, conducted February - March 2023, states one of its key aims is to: "Understand the remaining impact of a realistic mining test on the seabed environment and its fauna after 44 years. We plan to revisit the OMCO (Ocean Minerals Company) test mining area where an experimental mining system was tested in 1979 creating tracks on the seafloor. Using a wide range of techniques we hope to map, photograph and sample this area to see how the tracks and the adjacent areas subjected to plumes have recovered in 44 years" https://blogs.noc.ac.uk/jc241-smartex/introduction
Your response to a previous request, EIR2023/00097, confirmed that UKRI does not hold the images relating to the 1979 tests.
This new request relates to the NERC-funded expedition on the RRS James Cook in February-March 2023. Please release photographs taken of the revisited OMCO test mining area on the JC241 expedition
Response
Response Sent: 19 June 2023
Full details of this response are provided in the attached document.
Documents
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