# Ethics to Intersect Civic Participation and Formal Guidance
## 3 Marine Complex-Adaptive Social-Ecological Systems
### Second Example: Seabed Mining  
Several societal, technical, economic and environmental features describe the challenges of mining operations at the seabed (Table 2). Mutatis mutandis, these challenges also apply to mature industrial operations at sea, such as shipping, fishing or exploitation of hydrocarbons. In addition to these challenges, the remoteness of the open sea and the philosophical paradigm of the freedom of the seas, initially in the sense of free passage, provide agents with leeway for practices that may be dubious or problematic when applied to free access to resources [54]. Operation at sea for shipping, fishing and exploitation of hydrocarbons are regulated, and adherence is monitored; at least in those parts of the world with strong institutions and high labour standards. Also, much of the knowledge about these operations is shared and publicly available. Compared to these circumstances for mature industrial operations at sea, mining at the seabed is at a conceptual state and triggers controversy [55]. Compared to many terrestrial environments, the marine environments are technologically challenging; winds and waves, or corrosion, come to mind. Although the conditions at the seabed (pressure, temperature) are harsh, the primary technological challenge is to combine remotely controlled mobile operations at the seabed with operation in the water column and at the sea surface [56; 57; 58; 59; 60]. Beyond causing heavy corrosion of the equipment, the chemical properties of water facilitate solution and suspension of liquids of different nature. Therefore, tailing-dirt and stirred unconsolidated sediments as well as accidental pollution likely will be transported over long distances and will smother very slowly developing living deep-sea communities. Possibly, the single most significant challenge to seabed mining derives from the communication and monitoring technologies, which are available for operations at the sea surface, in the water column or at the seabed [61]. Modern satellite-based communication, sensing and tracking technologies ease monitoring of operations at any place on Earth; even at the surface of the open ocean; although the size of the oceans still is a problem. To monitor operations in the water column and at the seabed requires acoustic technologies mounted on moored or floating instruments. They provide much less detailed information and slower communication because of limited bandwidth. Moreover, acoustic technologies are interfering with communication of marine mammals and other marine organisms [62]. This circumstance has significant consequences for the conduct of the mining operations, their surveillance as well as the monitoring of impacts on the environment, on the interests of third parties, and the commons. Hence, operations in the water column and at the seabed are quite \"in the dark\". When considering the challenges of mining at the seabed then the intersecting natural and technological systems (and practices) of seabed mining make it likely that the SES is complex-adaptive. Furthermore, seabed mining poses serious risks for the living environment of the deep sea, including understudied genetic resources, of which some have already given rise to patents. The deep sea is a less researched natural environment with unknown biota, and prolonged recovery of natural conditions in millennia or even longer time frames [63; 64; 55; 65]. These circumstances render the entire technical-environmental system of mining at the seabed complex-adaptive.