Key points
- TMC’s NORI-D program tests the technical performance of a prototype nodule collector vehicle and measures its impacts in a controlled area of the seabed.
- The monitoring campaign runs in three phases: a baseline program before impact, a collector test phase measuring effects in real time, and a post-collector phase repeating the baseline work to assess ecosystem response.
- During the collector test phase, AUVs, ROVs and CTDs conduct simultaneous mapping and sampling to gather data on the affected ecosystem.
- TMC describes the campaign as one of the largest deep-sea research programs in history, with results to form part of an open-source scientific data set accessible to the international community.
