Collective Scientific Assessment on the Deep Sea: launch of a Regional Dialogue Platform in the Pacific

This assessment will be carried out by a committee of experts, comprising fourteen scientists from different research institutions (IRD, CNRS [the National Centre for Scientific Research], IFREMER [French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea], MNHN [French Natural History Museum]) and three different universities (Sorbonne, West Brittany and Versailles-Saint-Quentin), and will be coordinated by Pierre-Yves Le Meur and Valelia Muni Toke, anthropologists at IRD. This assessment has two major objectives: 

• Take stock of the various knowledge registers relating to the deep seabeds; their current and future uses and their actual and potential impacts, and the governance arrangements in the French EEZs and in the Area (international waters);
• Produce a set of recommendations on national deep sea policy.

The provisional results of this expert assessment will be presented at the UN Ocean Conference to be held in Nice in June 2025. The final results will be published by IRD and will be freely accessible in early 2026.

Given the size of France’s exclusive economic zones (EEZ) encompassing its overseas territories, and given the major stakes around international waters in the Pacific Ocean, and considering the diversity of deep sea policy positions within the region, IRD is setting up a dialogue platform in this area, bringing together participants from Pacific Island countries and territories^?American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New-Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis-and-Futuna

The aim of this platform is to: 

• Share experiences, skills, know-how, practices, visions, projects, perspectives and expectations of the actors involved;
• Discuss the diversity of deep sea governance mechanisms;
• Stimulate discussion about the collective scientific assessment, the results of which will be presented to representatives of the Pacific Island countries and territories;
• Provide a neutral space in which various representatives from the Pacific Island countries and territories can share information about deep sea related issues.

Two meetings will be held to ensure that all involved Pacific Island stakeholders (governments, technical services, traditional authorities, civil society, NGOs and regional organizations) have an opportunity to exchange views and opinions. The first, which will be attended by Gilles Pecassou, IRD Deputy Executive Director, will be held in Noumea on 19-21 March 2024, and will provide an overview of the state of knowledge as well as clarify the main issues relating to the deep sea. A second meeting will take place in French Polynesia in December 2024.

This deep sea dialogue platform is one of a series of events designed to mark the 80th anniversary of the IRD. 

>> Consult the press release 

Press contacts

• IRD Press Office : Charlotte Gabet | presse@ird.fr | 06 07 36 84 06
• IRD Communications Correspondent New Caledonia : Karla Bussone | karla.bussone@ird.fr | +687 26 08 04 / +687 79 21 66