UNOLS Statement - 14 May 2025
The United States possesses a critical national asset in its Academic Research Fleet (ARF), a network of advanced oceanographic research vessels. This asset enables the nation’s leadership in deep-sea science and technology and offers an immediate and outstanding domestic capability to significantly accelerate the mapping and characterization of seabed mineral resources and associated biological communities within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and in international waters. Harnessing the ARF's existing infrastructure, advanced technology, and skilled personnel presents a cost-effective and efficient pathway to enhance national security, diversify critical mineral supply chains, support environmental monitoring, and advance our understanding of the deep-sea to better inform management.
The Strategic Imperative: Large areas of the global seabed, including significant portions of the U.S. EEZ, remain unmapped and poorly understood. Accelerating data collection through systematic surveys is paramount to identifying and quantifying potential resources as well as associated biological communities, and therefore to informing responsible management decisions.
The Capability of the US Academic Research Fleet: The ARF comprises a diverse range of vessels, from large Global- and Ocean-Class ships capable of sustained operations in remote polar and open-ocean regions to smaller Regional- and Coastal-Class vessels suited for continental shelf and slope work. Within the ARF, the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) includes submersible, ROV and AUV platforms for fine-scale data collection and sampling. Additionally, ARF vessels are equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation essential for comprehensive seabed surveys:
- Seabed Mapping: ARF vessels are equipped with advanced multibeam echo sounder systems capable of collecting high-resolution bathymetry (seafloor topography) and acoustic backscatter data (indicating seafloor texture and hardness). This provides the fundamental framework for identifying geological features potentially associated with mineral deposits.
- Sub-Seafloor Imaging: Many vessels possess sub-bottom profiling systems that use low- frequency sound to penetrate the seabed, revealing subsurface geological structures, sediment thickness, and potential hard rock exposures relevant to mineral formation and concentration. Gravimeters and magnetometers further aid in characterizing crustal structure and identifying magnetic anomalies often associated with mineralized zones.
- Seabed Characterization & Sampling: The ARF provides platforms for deploying sophisticated sensor packages and sampling tools:
- Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) & Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): These systems enable detailed visual surveys (high-definition video, still photography), fine-scale mapping using onboard sensors, and targeted sampling of rocks, sediments, and associated biota.
- Sampling Systems: Vessels are equipped with winches and handling systems capable of deploying various coring devices (piston, gravity, multi-corers), dredges, and grabs to collect physical samples for geological, geochemical, microbial, and resource quantification analysis.
- Water Column Sensing: Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) sensors, often augmented with chemical sensors, help characterize the overlying water column, which can be crucial for understanding mineral formation processes and potential impacts.
Operational Scope and Expertise: The ARF operates routinely throughout the world’s oceans and possesses extensive experience in diverse marine conditions. Missions are supported by highly skilled marine technicians proficient in operating and maintaining complex equipment, experienced vessel crews adept at precision station-keeping and equipment deployment, and world-class shore-side technical support. Furthermore, the ARF facilitates direct collaboration with America’s leading experts specializing in marine geology, geophysics, geochemistry, marine biology, and oceanography, ensuring scientific collaboration, expert oversight and insightful data interpretation.
Advantages of Utilizing the ARF:
- Existing Infrastructure: Leverages significant prior investment in vessels and technology, avoiding the substantial cost and time required to build a new, dedicated fleet.
- Advanced & Integrated Systems: ARF vessels feature modern, well-maintained, and integrated suites of survey equipment.
- Technical Ability: Access to experienced personnel (technicians, crew, scientists, logistics) ensures high-quality data acquisition and operational efficiency.
- Mapping Expertise: ARF vessels have conducted 52% of the total seabed mapping to date in the US Exclusive Economic Zone, which still contains more than 1.7 million square miles of uncharted seafloor. Globally, the ARF has contributed 85% of the total mapped area archived at NOAA/NCEI.
- Specific Experience: ARF ships and crews have already surveyed specific sites and deep-sea regions of interest, conducted sampling, and completed analyses that are directly applicable to ongoing and future studies.
- Established Data Pipelines: Robust protocols exist for data quality control, processing, archiving, and dissemination.
- Flexibility and Reach: The diverse fleet allows for tailoring vessel capabilities to specific survey needs and geographic locations, from coastal margins to the deepest ocean trenches, globally.
Supporting this existing domestic investment in deep sea science, mapping and technology will accelerate data collection and collaboration on seabed mineral resources and associated biological communities and therefore will allow the US to maintain leadership in deep sea science and technology. The US Academic Research Fleet stands ready as a powerful, responsive and effective resource with advanced technological capabilities, broad operational range, experienced personnel, and existing infrastructure, providing a highly effective platform for systematic surveying and data acquisition in both U.S. and international waters. Strategic investment in and dedicated utilization of the ARF for targeted seabed resource assessment campaigns offers a timely and efficient means to enhance resource security and geopolitical standing.