The Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) manage a research permit for small environmental programmes (rpSEP) granted through the National Research Council.
The permit has been used to issue letters of permission and run short expeditions to aid in the collection of baseline environmental data that has been posted into the public domain (CSD Public) as received by SBMA.
Objectives of the rpSEP
The collection of deep sea data to understand the Cook Islands deep sea environment ecosystems and habitats.
Much of the collection will be short term and opportunistic in nature i.e. using transiting vessels to collect data enroute, i.e. a type of “citizen science”
All data will be provided to SBMA within 6 months of collection, and be posted to the public domain (SBMA’s CSD Public) shortly after that.
The rpSEP is not:
An opportunity to allow parties to explore for marine minerals, fisheries etc.
An opportunity to conduct social or other non-environmental studies.
A replacement for the research permit process for longer seabed research expeditions.
The rpSEP is:
A permit to collect only marine environmental data.
A mechanism to broaden research across our Marae Moana for more people.
An opportunity to build a larger public reservoir of environmental data.
