COBRA Webinar – June 2026

Ecology of mesopelagic micronekton in a deep-sea mining site

Victoria Assad (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)

Micronekton, small fish and other small swimmers, are a vital part of midwater food webs and have the potential to be impacted by deep-sea mining via the release of sediment plumes. Micronekton communities in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) region of the eastern Pacific Ocean are understudied beyond the upper 200 m of the water column and baseline community descriptions are needed should mining commence to assess impact and resiliency.

In this webinar, I will present micronekton data from the first midwater baseline campaign in the CCZ, specifically two sites in the NORI-D license area. I will give an overview of the spatiotemporal variability in the depth-integrated community, vertical distributions and diel vertical migration patterns, biodiversity, and rates of endemism. I will also present a preliminary life history analysis of four biomass dominant fish species.