Technology Opens Promise, Perils Of Ocean Mining

The Nautilus project is planned within New Guinea's territorial water, a 200-mile (322-kilometer) zone from every country's coastline where it has exclusive ocean floor mining rights. But Trebilcock said the rules set by the ISA at its annual session, beginning in late May, will likely set precedents for all projects.

Most of the earth's known hydrothermal vents are outside the 200-mile (322-kilometer) zones, in open ocean that is under the jurisdiction of the ISA, which was established in 1982 by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The United States still has not signed onto the Law of the Sea treaty, which has been stalled for decades by Senate opponents who say it requires the country to surrender important sovereignty rights.

The United States has been consulted as the rules have been drafted, but proponents say the country could be shut out from future claims to deep ocean mines, since the seabed authority would award the rights.

The Obama administration has indicated it wants to sign the treaty, and this week's meeting at Woods Hole is proceeding as if the U.S. ultimately will have a say as a treaty participant.

The unique species that thrive near the vents are a chief concern of scientists, including marine geologist Peter Rona of Rutgers University, who discovered the Atlantic's first hydrothermal vents in the 1980s. He describes the area near the vents as "like another planet." Creatures there include footlong clams, man-length tubeworms and a shrimp species that has no eyes, but may have sensors that detect the vents' infrared radiation.