Manual research data was used to fill in many of the gaps left by the survey responses. These are the protocols used to collect manual research data for this assessment.
We used the following protocol to standardize how information was searched to respond to the different questions. We supported each piece of information with web-based references or national and international reports. We made sure that websites were still active and that the dates of publications were recent enough to reflect current capacity.
In our survey, we asked respondents to identify deep-sea and marine organizations, including universities and research laboratories (Q7R), government agencies and ministries (Q8R), and other organizations (Q9R). Responses were open-text.
We also used scientific literature and available databases to identify institutions and experts.
Scientific Literature
We used online platforms such as ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Researchgate, EBSCOhost, Directory of Open Access Journals, or Scopus with the following keywords:
“deep-sea,” “abyss,” “deep-sea trenches,” “deep-sea canyon,” “deep ocean,” “deep waters”
“marine biology”
“ctd,” “conductivity temperature depth profiler”
“adcp,” “acoustic doppler current profiler”
“eDNA,” “environmental dna”
“computational cluster”
“off-shore”
“deep sea mining”
“deep sea fishing”
“hydrography,” “hydrodynamics,” “deep circulation”
Once relevant deep-sea papers were found, we checked the author’s institutions and other publications. We then checked the institution’s website to assess its relevance.
Organization and Expert Databases
We used the following known inventories of ocean-related institutions and experts:
Ocean.Expert.org, the European datasets by BODC (resources > inventories > organizations)
The UNESCO IODE list
The Deep Sea Biology Society database for working groups (and scientific literature)
The INDEEP database to find deep-sea and marine experts and their affiliation
The ORCID database to find deep-sea and marine experts and their affiliation
The SeaDataNet database of member marine institutions
The Wikipedia list of oceanographic institutions
The Marinebio databases for laboratories, institutes, and graduate programs
The Commonwealth Network database of research institutions
The Sustainable Pacific Community or SPC Fisheries address book for research programs, governmental agencies, and expert contact information in the Pacific region
The directory of Caribbean Environmental Organizations and Environmental Government Agencies
The Global Ocean Observing System for national institutions and experts
For example, the process of using Ocean.Expert.org was:
Search by country on OceanExpert website > list of institutions & expert(s) for each institution > check expertise, roles, and institution’s website for relevance and if deep sea is mentioned.
Check if websites and links are recent enough and still work.
Add the institution as Academic/Gov/NGO in the spreadsheet.
We researched whether or not the following 13 marine industries were present in each GeoArea: fisheries, aquaculture, marine transportation, marine shipping, marine biotechnology, tourism, conservation & protection, offshore oil & gas, safety & surveillance, marine construction, marine research & development, ocean renewable energy, and deep-sea mining.
We used general search engines with general and refined queries using the name of each GeoArea and the following keywords:
Maritime affairs, Blue economy
Marine conservation organizations, environment protection, conservation
Marine science, Marine research
Aquaculture, fisheries
Ocean Renewable, wind energy
Offshore oil
Deep sea mining (or “Deep-sea mining”)
Navy
Shipping, marine freight
Marine tourism
Shipbuilding, naval architects
Marine industries
We also researched international listings such as:
The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture for fisheries and aquaculture,
The SPC Fisheries Address Book 2021 | The Pacific Community for fisheries and aquaculture industries in the Pacific,
The SPC Coastal & Oceanic Fisheries Programmes Digital Library (spc.int) for Oceania,
The International Energy Agency’s website for oil and gas industry and renewable energies,
The CIA’s world factbook to find industries for each GeoArea,
The International Seabed Authority regarding mining industries.
The European Atlas of the Seas for European tourism industries.
What types of vessels are present in each GeoArea? (Q12R)
We searched for the types of vessels present in each GeoArea, specifically if the GeoArea has research, fishing, cruise ships, recreational, traditional, navy, and other types of vessels.
We used general search engines with general and refined queries using the name of each GeoArea and the following keywords:
Fishing boat
Ferry, cruise ships, yacht
Recreational ships, sailing boat
Canoes, traditional boats, artisanal boat
Navy Vessel, military boat
Research vessel
Transport vessel, cargo
We searched the websites of marine institutions for marine exploration infrastructure and material in their repositories of “activities,” “resources,” “infrastructures,” and similar pages to find the vessels that each institution owns.
We also used marine traffic report databases to search for vessel traffic by country, where we could filter the search by country or vessel type. For Example, vessels marked as “Passenger ship” were recorded under “Recreational vessel” or “Cruise ship.”
What types of deep submergence vehicles are present in each GeoArea? (Q18R)
We researched the types of DSVs present in each GeoArea, specifically whether the GeoArea had remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), human-occupied vehicles (HOVs), benthic landers, drifters, or towsleds.
We used general search engines with general and refined queries using the name of each GeoArea and the following keywords:
Remotely operated vehicle or ROV, ROV expeditions
Autonomous vehicles
Glider, Glider Data collection
Submersibles
Human Occupied Vehicles or HOV, Manned Submersible, Manned submarine
Tow sleds (or towsleds), Underwater camera sled
Towed Optical Assessment Device or TOAD, Towed camera sled
Towed Underwater Vehicles or TUVs
Landers, Benthic Remote Underwater Video or BRUVs
Bottom-mounted platforms
Drifters, Lagrangian drifters
We used the following databases:
The Argo website to identify areas where drifters are collecting data
The European Marine infrastructure database
We also searched scientific literature using the different search engines listed above for scientific studies that used DSVs (Section 1.1).
What types of deep-sea sensor systems are present in each GeoArea? (Q24R)
We searched for the types of sensor systems present in each GeoArea, specifically if the GeoArea has CTDs, O2, pH, and eH sensors, water sampling systems, navigation systems, seafloor mapping systems, and imaging systems. We recorded if the tools were qualified for deep-sea or shallow work for the regions of Asia, the Americas, and Europe. However, we did not fully record shallow versus deep capabilities for Africa and Oceania.
We used general search engines with general and refined queries using the name of each GeoArea and the following keywords:
Water sampling, water quality, Niskin bottle
Marine data logger, Ocean salinity, Water conductivity
Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth or CTD measurement
Marine oxygen sensor
Ocean mapping, seafloor mapping
Deep ocean imaging, marine imaging system
Environmental DNA or eDNA sampling, eDNA metabarcoding, Ocean omics, marine next-generation sequencing or NGS
Hydrogrography
Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler or ADCP
Hydrodynamics, bathymetry
Echosounder, navigation system
We searched the websites of marine institutions for marine exploration infrastructure and material in their repositories of “activities,” “resources,” “infrastructures,” and similar pages to find the sensors that institutions own.
We also searched scientific literature using the different search engines listed in 1.1 for scientific studies that used ocean sensors.
What kinds of data analysis & access tools are present in each GeoArea? (Q29R)
We researched specific types of data tools present in each GeoArea, including GIS, data management tools, data storage capacity, data visualization tools, machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI/ML), cloud computing, and/or genomic sequencing tools.
We used online search engines with general and refined queries using the name of each GeoArea and the listed data tools (e.g. GIS, artificial intelligence, or cloud computing) and/or the following keywords:
Cloud providers
Data training
Map analysis
Storage medium
Media recording
Media storage
Next generation sequencing
DNA facility
We used a code system to provide additional information about the presence or absence of capacities and classify them by their status in the GeoArea. The codes and their meanings are listed below:
Codes that represented the absence of capacity for the analysis included:
FC - Provided by/based in a foreign country
HFC - Human capacity from a foreign country
A - Absent
PS -Prospected (for example, the deep sea mining exploration phase)
CR - Country Restriction (For countries with internet access restrictions and censorship)
ICR - Information Restriction
ACR - Activity Restriction
Codes that represented the presence of capacity for the analysis included:
CID - Currently in development
FO - Foreign-based organization but where local capacity (local technology and local workers) is developed
RO - Research organization
CO - Corporate organization
MR - Marine-related (for universities, government agencies, or research labs that do marine work but not specifically related to the deep ocean)
GDL - Google drive link (linked to a document that cannot be found online)
Languages
FR - search in French
AR - search in Arabic
SP - search in Spanish
PT- search in Portuguese
BD - search in Bengali
VNM - search in Vietnamese
PSN - search in Persian
IDN - search in Indonesian
GRG - search in Georgian
Examples of Code Use
For example, "ROV [FC]" in a cell specifying ROVs for a GeoArea indicated that the area had assets from a foreign region.
For the "CID" code that described capacities in development, we used the following criteria to distinguish between presence and absence:
"Yes [CID]" means the activity or technology is formally established, and there are still ongoing processes in development. (For example, a research vessel is not present, but there are plans to acquire one, or the GeoArea is in the process of getting a new vessel).
"No [CID]" means the activity or technology is not formally established, and the GeoArea is in the process of developing the activity or acquiring the technology. In this case, the capacity was not counted as present, but we report the precise GeoAreas and technologies in development for each region.
For the countries that are self-governing but remain overseas territories of another country (2022 Dependencies), we used "yes [FC]" if the self-governing country has capacities but does not have full independence (i.e., they are still attached to their Metropolitan country). If the self-governing country being researched does not have its own capacity, but the politically linked country does have the capacity, we used "No [FC]" (the same as with any other country that provides foreign capacity). If the self-governed country has its own capacity and is independent, we didn't use the code [FC] unless the capacity is being developed and still relies on some capacity overseas, in which case we used "Yes [FC] [CID]."
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