News

KINGSTON, JAMAICA, 21 June 2012 - - The InterRidge/ISA Endowment Fund Fellowship Programme recently awarded fellowships to three students from developing countries.

The three successful applicants are Hanchao Jian - a PhD student at Peking University, Beijing, China; Sanitha Sivadas - a postdoctoral researcher at NIO, India; and Andrew Thaler - a PhD student at Duke University, USA, who will train Freddie Alei, from Papua New Guinea.

The International Seabed Authority  Endowment Fund recently awarded training fellowships to four qualified professionals to participate in a training course offered by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, India.

The awardees are Suzan El-Gharapawy of Egypt, Wahiebah Hoosain of South Africa, Schery Umanzor of Costa Rica and William Saleu  of Papua New Guinea. 

The Training Program began 17 October and ends 11 December 2010.

The Council of the International Seabed Authority International adopted a decision proposing Nii Allotey Odunton of Ghana as the sole candidate for election as Secretary-General of the Authority.

The Council’s recommendation now goes to the Authority’s Assembly which is expected to vote sometime next week.

Mr. Odunton, currently Deputy to the Secretary-General, will succeed Mr. Satya N. Nandan, who is stepping down at the end of the year after three successive four-year terms as Secretary-General.

On 8 August 2014, the Authority received an application for approval of a plan of work for exploration for polymetallic nodules in the Area submitted by China Minmetals Corporation, which is sponsored by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

The application area is in the reserved areas of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone of the Central Pacific Ocean.

KINGSTON, Jamaica (14 July 2015)  - - In his statement as the newly elected President of the Council at the 21st Session of the ISA, Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, has called for Council to take note of the Post 2015-United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda blueprint.

JAMAICA, Kingston (1 June 2016) - - With a third of the world's seafloor area covered by the Economic Exclusive Zone and areas of the Continental Shelf, reporting requirements for mineral resources and mineral reserves are set by laws of nations within which the exploration companies operate.

JAMAICA, Kingston (25 April 2017) - - The Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), in accordance with its exploration contract for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts with the International Seabed Authority, is offering four (4) at-sea training places for candidates from developing States within its 2018 training programme.

The training programme aims to provide on-board work and investigative techniques for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts by developing investigative planning skills, on-board work experience and data analysis and interpretation skills.

JAMAICA, Kingston (1 March 2018) - -  On Monday 26 February 2018, the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority presented its Draft Strategic Plan for the period 2019-2023 on the organisation’s website, in English and French, the two working languages of the Authority.  

JAMAICA, Kingston (17 July 2018) - - The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA) and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), today, co-hosted a side event on the First Steps in Developing and Implementing Regional Environmental Management Plans (REMPs) in the North Pacific and North Atlantic.

To facilitate data standardization, the Authority is pursuing efforts to standardize the taxonomy of three classes of fauna - megafauna, macrofauna and meiofauna.

The three classes of fauna are associated with the three mineral resources (polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts) for which the Authority has adopted rules, regulations and procedures for prospecting and exploration.

On 26 March 2013, the International Seabed Authority received an application for approval of a plan of work for exploration for polymetallic sulphides submitted by the Government of India.

Jamaica's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Honourable A.J. Nicholson and Secretary-General Odunton of the International Seabed Authority today launched the 30th Anniversary of the Opening for Signature of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in Kingston.

In a bid to further strengthen the existing cooperation with the International Seabed Authority, China has granted funding to support between 3 - 5 candidates from developing countries in the field of marine sciences to pursue Masters or Doctorate degrees in Marine Science at the Tongji University in Shanghai, China.

Applicants for the ISA-Tongji University scholarships must have a bachelor’s degree in geology, chemistry or biology, must be under the age of 35 and must be nationals of developing countries.

The International Seabed Authority launched its Endowment Fund project to encourage the conduct of collaborative marine scientific research in the international seabed area in India on February 18, 2008.

To facilitate these activities, the Secretariat will create and maintain a list of ongoing opportunties for collaboration including research cruises and deep-sea sample analysis through training and internship programmes and by building a network of co-operating groups interested in or undertaking these types of activities and programmes.

A Chilean Delegation led by His Excellency, Ambassador Eduardo Bonilla Menchaca, Chile’s Ambassador to Jamaica and Permanent Representative to the International Seabed Authority made a two-day visit to the ISA Secretariat on Wednesday and Thursday, 15th and 16th October 2014. 

Ambassador Bonilla Menchaca was accompanied by Captain Fernando J. Mingram of the Armada de Chile, Executive Secretary of the National Oceanographic Committee of Chile and Mr. Maximiliano Jara Pozo, Third Secretary and Consul of Chile in Kingston.