Impact on the environment

The environment is what matters most for ABYSSA

Ensuring that environmental issues are taken into consideration is ABYSSA’s top concern. Exploring the deep ocean floor entails the use of a wide range of nautical vessels and equipment and human resources, which, inevitably, have an impact on the environment.

Prior to any oceanography campaign, we systematically assess the impact that our activities may have on the environment, set out in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This document, drafted for each individual project, identifies any potential sources of impact and assesses the project’s carbon footprint, with a view to reducing our potential environmental impact as far as possible.

All oceanography expeditions have an impact, however minimal, on the environment. Our aim is to plan and carry out operations to ensure that that impact is as low as possible.
Data acquired during each project will be used to gain a deeper understanding of these environments and thereby improve our impact assessments.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

The EIS assesses whether the proposed exploration work is compatible with environmental concerns. The general principle involved in drawing up an EIS is to look ahead to the consequences that the project may have on the natural and human environment. After describing these consequences in detail, solutions to avoid, reduce or mitigate their impact can be sought and proposed.

Our Environmental Impact Statements therefore systematically include the following points:

Description of the natural and human environment, i.e. in its initial state (environmental baseline);
Description of our exploration operations, primarily focusing on those components liable to involve interaction with the environment (nautical equipment and submersibles, acoustic measurements, noise and artificial lighting, etc.);
Description of our planned activities in light of the natural and human environment, entailing analysis of the impact of each component part of the sea campaign (direct and indirect consequences and their intensity, etc.);
Description of the measures proposed to avoid, reduce or mitigate any impact identified.