Emerging and unresolved issues: the example of marine genetic resources of areas beyond national jurisdiction - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 315

9.2.2 Environmental impact of marine scientific research
There has been some discussion concerning the potential environmental impacts of in situ
research aimed at sampling marine organisms. While generally thought to be minimal, such
impacts may, at times, be difficult to assess because the scale and location of all research
activities related to marine genetic resources are not always known, and information about
the population and life history parameters of the source organisms is not always available.
In general, initial sampling of biological material for research purposes consists of rel-
ativelysmallquantities(e.g.anindividualspongeorotherorganism).However,someorgan-
isms, such as sponges and microbial fauna, are largely unculturable in laboratory conditions
(Molinski et al ., 2009 ). Repeated collection of promising organisms may therefore be ne-
cessary and, cumulatively, have environmental impacts. Examples of cases where marketing
of a specific product requires continuous harvesting lie in krill oil and other products from
krill extracts, as well as proposals to use oceanic Sargassum weed from the Sargasso Sea
in the production of biofuels (Patent US7479167 and patent application US20090119978).
Furthermore, many marine species live in essential symbiotic relationships, and all partner
organisms need to be sequenced to understand the symbiosis and the factors that govern
them (Allen and Jaspars, 2009 ). Also, in some cases, the quantities required to produce act-
ive agents may be fairly substantial. For example, producing 1 gram of an anti-cancer agent
required close to 1 metric ton (wet weight) of Ecteinascidia turbinata (Leary, 2011 ) .
Sensitive and pristine habitats and rare species, as well as species with limited distri-
bution, may be particularly at risk in such cases. Adopting a precautionary approach would
therefore be important. Harvesting of the octocoral Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae in the
Bahamas, where tailored collection strategies and export regulations are in place (Goffredo
and Lasker, 2008 ) , provides an example of the management of the risks associated with
bioprospecting.
The further development and improvement of laboratory techniques to produce syn-
thetics and derivatives may lessen the eventual environmental impacts and the costs of re-
search (field work is generally the most expensive part of any scientific endeavour). In the