Global Deep-Sea Exploration Assets: Request for Info

I am writing today asking for 2-3 minutes of your time, to help with a question I’m trying to answer.

I am preparing a dataset that compares worldwide countries that have a deep-sea environment within their EEZ (defined as >200m depth) and also have scientific access to a deep-sea exploration platform, such as an ROV, AUV or manned submersible.  As far as I can tell this list doesn’t exist(?)

By “access”, I mean a:

– Government-owned research platform

– Privately-owned research platform that has repeatedly been used for peer-reviewed non-profit research,

– Partnerships/major contracts with commercial outfits (such as oil & gas) that provide repeated access to scientists who are based within the country.

While my definitions are loose, I am just trying to get a rough idea of the percentage of countries that have a deep-sea environment compared to their inherent deep-sea technological assets.

So, I am asking the DSBS society to please look at the following list of countries that I know have a deep-sea environment within their EEZ and have internal access to it, and please email me if you have a country to add.  If you have a website/link to share that would also be great, but not necessary.  Any and all comments are welcome.

Here’s the list so far:

Thank you so much for your help!

Cheers,

Brennan Phillips <bphillips@gso.uri.edu>