Japan and deep seabed mining

Abstract

Japan holds a unique position among potential deep seabed mining states. This paper describes this uniqueness and identifies four possible factors that the author believes have influenced the shaping of Japan's policy. These factors are: the importance of the use of oceans and a stable legal order, the near‐total dependence on imports of the four mineral resources which are contained in manganese nodules, the need to cooperate with Western industrialized countries, and the traditional close ties between the government and private industry. The paper then examines the past and current developments regarding Japan's involvement in deep seabed affairs from the perspectives provided by these four salient facts. The author concludes by expressing the hope that current differences in the positions of potential mining states will be reconciled as actual deep seabed exploitation becomes more of a reality.     

Turning points in the future of deep seabed mining

Abstract

The paper analyzes the prospects for deep seabed mining largely from the legal and political perspectives. It identifies the major players, the forums where the struggles occur, the early assumptions, and then four turning points in the evolution of the current system. The first turning point came when the UN. Convention was adopted, and the United States voted against it. The second turning point came with the deadline for signing the U.N. Convention and qualifying to sponsor a pioneer investor. The third turning point will come when the pioneer investors resolve their overlapping mine site claims and are registered by Prepcom. The fourth turning point will come when Prepcom is able to resolve some of the important outstanding issues. The paper concludes with some recommendations for bringing the institutional machinery and legal framework into such order that deep seabed mining might take place.     

The law of the sea and the prospects for deep seabed mining: The position of the European community

This article explores the options that the Norwegian government has when it comes to the management of harvesting a new resource (redfeed) in the politically tense area surrounding Svalbard. The article argues that, by preparing a blueprint regime solely for redfeed rather than allowing the resource to be a catalyst for conflict, the impacts of introducing the fishery will be less dramatic.     

Alternative regimes for harvesting the seabed

Scott Allen and John P. Craven, editors, Alternatives in Deepsea Mining, Proceedings, Law of the Sea Institute Workshop, December 11–14, 1978, Ka'u Hawaii (Honolulu: Law of the Sea Institute, University of Hawaii, 1979), vii + 110 pp., $12.50.

Jack N. Barkenbus, Deep Seabed Resources: Politics and Technology (New York: The Free Press, 1979), xiv + 191 pp., $14.95.

Ross D. Eckert, The Enclosure of Ocean Resources: Economics and the Law of the Sea (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1979), xiv + 390 pp., $16.95.

I. G. Bulkley, Who Gains From Deep Ocean Mining? Simulating the Impact of Regimes for Regulating Nodule Exploitation, Research Series No. 40 (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1979), vii + 117 pp., $3.50 (paper).

Judith T. Kildow, editor, Deepsea Mining (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1980), vii + 110 pp., $2.50.     

Strategies for resource exploitation

In a mixed strategy, game-theoretical scenario mimicking the behaviour of fishing vessels competing for a limited renewable resource, agents following either a Collective Intelligence or a purely selfish strategy quickly outperform fully cooperative teams as well as agents not planning for future action by acting randomly. The stable balance between fully selfish agents and the Collective Intelligence depends subtly on the ratio of instantaneous demand to instantaneously available resource as well as on the dynamics of the resource itself. This suggests use of ratio of strategies as an indicator of the level of resource exploitation. The Collective Intelligence performance proves to be extremely robust to uncertain information, especially when longer records of historical catch are accounted for.     

Genetic techniques appropriate for the biotechnological exploitation of cyanobacteria

A large collection of genetic tools are available for those who wish to manipulate laboratory strains of cyanobacteria. These tools have not yet been applied to strains that might be used for more practical ends. Applications in which a natural ability of a cyanobacterial strain is exploited would require different genetic tools than those in which a cyanobacterial strain is called upon to produce a foreign product. DNA can be transferred into cyanobacteria by three methods: transformation, conjugation, and electroporation. With each, efficiency is greatly affected by restriction enzymes within the recipient cyanobacterium. Transferred DNA may be propagated in the recipient strain if carried on a replicating plasmid or if integrated into the host chromosome. Different means of integration offer different advantages. Methods are available to increase and control the expression of genes of interest. These genetic tools are discussed with reference to specific problems that might be faced in the exploitation of cyanobacteria.     

Compartments for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste

Despite technological developments and improved liner-material applications, heavy metals in landfill leachate still penetrate the soil profile, polluting the soil and ground-water. An alternative approach therefore must be explored to reduce heavy-metal migration in soil-bentonite landfill liners. By considering the interaction of different heavy metals and their synergetic and antagonistics behaviors, such an approach could be developed. Low mobility metals such as Cu²⁺, and Pb²⁺ inhibit the adsorption of Cd²⁺ which is a moderate-mobility metal and Cu²⁺ sorption is decreased by the presence of Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺. Therefore, Zn²⁺, a low-mobility metal, cannot be grouped with Cu²⁺. This way, four compatible metal groups have been identified: (1) low mobility: Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Ag, (2) low mobility: Zn²⁺ and Cr³⁺; (3) moderate mobility: As²⁺, Fe²⁺, and Ni²⁺; (4) high mobility: Cd²⁺ and Hg²⁺. Cd²⁺ with a moderate mobility pattern is synergetic to Fe²⁺ and is more mobile with Ni²⁺. Therefore, Cd²⁺ is separated from the moderate-mobility group and is consigned with Hg, a high-mobility metal. The liner materials suitable for Hg²⁺ are assumed to be suitable for Cd²⁺ as well. Based on this concept, and to reduce heavy metal mobility, wastes should be segregated on compatibility basis according to their heavy metal contents before being disposed in different individual compartments. For wastes containing several incompatible heavy metals, sorting should be based on the heavy-metal with the highest concentration. Another solution is the manufacturing of products using compatible heavy metal combinations and then labeling them accordingly. Such waste segregation and landfill compartmentalization lowers risks of groundwater contamination and liner cost.     

Deep seabed mining: A definition of the problem

Abstract

The prospects for deep seabed mining in this century appear remote. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea was closed for signature on December 10, 1982. As of that date, 155 nation‐states and four entities had signed, but not the United States and some others. Since that time, the United States has endeavored without much success to develop a “Reciprocating States Agreement”; that would legitimate seabed mining with or without the U.N. Convention. On the other hand, the Preparatory Commission has met six times and is making only modest progress without the participation of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Federal Republic of Germany.     

Modelling strategies for the industrial exploitation of lactic acid bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have a long tradition of use in the food industry, and the number and diversity of their applications has increased considerably over the years. Traditionally, process optimization for these applications involved both strain selection and trial and error. More recently, metabolic engineering has emerged as a discipline that focuses on the rational improvement of industrially useful strains. In the post-genomic era, metabolic engineering increasingly benefits from systems biology, an approach that combines mathematical modelling techniques with functional-genomics data to build models for biological interpretation and--ultimately--prediction. In this review, the industrial applications of LAB are mapped onto available global, genome-scale metabolic modelling techniques to evaluate the extent to which functional genomics and systems biology can live up to their industrial promise.     

Microbiological exploitation of the chemokine system

Several viruses encode chemokine elements in their genome. This review focuses on the roles of such elements in the ongoing battle between the virus and the host. The biological and pharmacological characterizations of several of these chemokine elements have highlighted their importance in the mammalian immune system for antiviral responses and suggested future antiviral and anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies.     

Optimal exploitation for a commercial fishing model

A two non-linear dynamic models, first one in two state variables and one control and the second one with three state variables and one control, are presented for the purpose of finding the optimal combination of exploitation, capital investment and price variation in the commercial fishing industry. This optimal combination is determined in terms of management policies. Exploitation, capital and price variation are controlled through the utilization rate of available capital. A novel feature in this model is that the variation of the capital depends on the income.