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www.sea-technology.com November 2016 / st 55 Additions to Ocean Hope Spots List Fourteen new ocean Hope Spots— marine areas critical to the health of the ocean and deserving special pro- tection—were announced by Mis- sion Blue and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii. The announcement follows rigorous scientific vetting of nomina- tions from citizens and organizations around the world. There are currently a total of 76 Hope Spots worldwide. The new 14 Hope Spots, which include Hatteras in North Carolina and Malpelo off the coast of Colombia, were evaluated for their exceptional qualities by the joint Mission Blue/IUCN Hope Spots Council. While about 15 percent of terres- trial regions is currently under some form of protection, less than 4 percent of the ocean is protected, leaving it vulnerable to overfishing, pollution and overexploitation. Sylvia Earle introduced the concept of Hope Spots in her 2009 TED talk, which has garnered support from Na- tional Geographic and Rolex. With the support of Google, Hope Spots will be integrated into the Google platform to allow users to explore, understand and appreciate the great living systems of the ocean. Rare Earth Elements in Cook Islands Deep Seabed Recent discoveries indicate poten- tial new sources of rare earth elements (REEs) in the deep seabed, according to Ocean Minerals LLC, which has identified areas of potential in the Ex- clusive Economic Zone of the Cook Islands and has entered into an agree- ment with the Cook Islands govern- ment for exclusive rights to prospect and explore these areas. REEs are critical to high-tech, green energy and defense applications. New applications of REEs are constantly being discovered, including the use of scandium in the next generation of high-strength aluminum alloys for aerospace applications. The areas in the Cook Islands were discovered by Houston-based Deep Reach Technology Inc. (DRT). Ocean Minerals has entered into a licensing agreement with DRT for engineering technology and information gained during DRT's research study. DRT is working on an economic means of processing the sediments on board the production vessel at sea. Ocean Minerals plans during the next few years to undertake several phases of seabed sampling that will incorporate the collection of environmental base- line data. ¡VAMOS! Reaches 'Design Freeze' Stage After 18 months, the ¡VAMOS! Consortium has reached the "design freeze" stage of the prototypes to be built. ¡VAMOS!, the Viable Alterna- tive Mining Operating System, is a 42-month research and development project featuring 17 partners from nine EU countries. ¡VAMOS! devel- ops novel technology for the extrac- tion of mineral deposits from flooded open pit mines, including a system to launch a remotely operated mining vehicle from a waterborne carriage so that the underwater mining equipment can operate without adverse effects on groundwater levels. The project is funded by the European Union's Ho- rizon 2020 research and innovation program. Over the past months, the system architecture of the equipment for ¡VA- MOS! was further developed into de- signs for the equipment prototypes, which have been evaluated. The technical partners of the con- sortium will now start procurement and construction. The build phase should be complet- ed by the end of this year, then each component will undergo functional testing before being assembled. The cutter boom and chassis of the mining vehicle is being constructed at Sand- vik, Austria. The high-pressure slurry pump is ready for performance testing at Damen Dredging Equipment in the Netherlands. USCGC Sequoia Returns From Fishing Patrol The USCGC Sequoia (WLB-215) crew returned home to Guam after a near month-long patrol of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean to deter il- legal fishing of highly migratory fish stocks such as tuna and build relation- ships with Pacific island nations. The vessel patrolled more than 3,970 mi. over 25 days and conducted 14 at-sea boardings that resulted in the reporting of 11 potential Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention violations to the applicable flag states for further investigation and enforce- ment. The Western and Central Pacific Ocean is home to the "tuna belt" and supplies about 60 percent of the global tuna supply, worth an estimated $7 bil- lion a year. During each fisheries patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard is protecting the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone from foreign fishing vessel encroachment, enforc- ing domestic living marine resources laws, and ensuring compliance with international agreements. Conservation Agreement on Nautiluses, Devil Rays, Sharks Conservation actions for cham- bered nautiluses, devil rays and sharks were agreed among member nations (parties) to the Convention on the In- ternational Trade in Endangered Spe- cies of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg, South Africa. These spe- cies are at risk of overexploitation due to commercial trade for their shells, fins, gill rakers or meat. CITES protec- tions will strengthen the ability to ad- dress illegal trade in these species. The U.S. trades in several of these species. Nearly 1 million nautiluses have been imported into the U.S. in the last decade. Similar to manta rays, which are included in CITES, devil rays are vul- nerable species increasingly found in international trade due to the growing demand for their gill rakers (the ap- pendages used for breathing) in Asian markets. Few countries have enacted regulations to protect devil rays, and there is a lack of regional and interna- tional measures to ensure sustainable harvest. The U.S. has been a strong support- er of shark conservation and supports the requests by the Maldives and Sri Lanka to include the silky and thresher shark in Appendix II. These listings will go into effect in one year to give countries the neces- sary time to ensure effective imple- mentation. ST marine resources