With the support of the British government, UK Seabed Resources has secured a licence from the United Nations to explore an area of seabed twice the size of Wales and 4, 000m deep.

BBC: UK Seabed Resources joins deep-ocean mineral-mining rush

Stephen Ball, chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin UK, owner of UK Seabed Resources, says the engineering experience of offshore oil and gas operations and the trend to rising mineral prices have now combined to make seabed mining feasible.

BBC: UK Seabed Resources joins deep-ocean mineral-mining rush

The authority was set up to encourage and manage this new sector but any future business, such as the Lockheed Martin subsidiary UK Seabed Resources, will have to pay royalties to the authority to be distributed to developing countries.

BBC: UK Seabed Resources joins deep-ocean mineral-mining rush

The same cannot be said for living resources in the deep seabed in areas beyond national jurisdiction, for which there is a clear legal and policy gap.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

This article is based on a report co-authored by Salvatore Arico and Charlotte Salpin and published in 2005 by the Institute of Advanced Study of the United Nations University, entitled Bio-prospecting of Genetic Resources in the Deep Seabed.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

Neither UNCLOS nor the Convention on Biological Diversity regulates the use of living resources found beyond continental shelves or Exclusive Economic Zones. (Within these Zones, the related provisions of UNCLOS, which favour essentially national interests, would apply.) Living resources in the deep seabed were unknown when UNCLOS was being negotiated.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES