Deep-sea Mining
The pilot Solwara 1 project could start operations in 2012. The vent biology community is closely watching this world-first and worries about the consequences. Helen Rosenbaum wrote a very nice and comprehensive report on the subject, including economics and biology. This report can be downloaded from http://stoplynas.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Out-Of-Our-Depth.pdf. Another article more generally about mining the ocean floor in the Pacific can be aceessed at: http://www.deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/
High-throughput
The high-throughput page has nicely grown over the years. To have a look at the list of projects, go to http://www.interridge.org/highthroughput, and if you would like to add to the list, go to http://www.interridge.org/node/add/highthroughput.
Meetings
The CAREX Conference on Life in Extreme Environments was held in Dublin, Ireland on 18-20 October 2011. It was an important event on the European and international scenes, providing the opportunity to discuss and present the state of the art and the latest developments on research on life in extreme environments, and vent biology plays an important role in CAREX. For more details, see http://www.carex-eu.org/activities/carex-conference-on-life-in-extreme-e...
The 13th International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium will be held in Wellington, New Zealand 3-7 December 2012. Held every 3 years, this general deep-sea meeting includes presentations on hydrothermal vents. For more details, see http://www.confer.co.nz/dsbs2012/
The 5th International Symposium on Chemosynthesis-Based Ecosystems will be held in Victoria, BC, Canada on 18-23 August 2013. Initially Hydrothermal Vent Biology Symposium, the scope has expanded to all chemosynthesis-based ecosystems to now include cold seeps, whale falls, sunken wood, and sulfidic caves. This meeting, held every 4 years, is the main focused symposium for the vent biology community. Registration is expected to begin November 2012. For more details, see http://www.neptunecanada.ca/cbe5/
Books
Elanor Bell (editor) and part of the CAREX community produced a book entitled “Life at Extremes: Environments, organisms and strategies for survival” that came out in March 2012 (CABI publishing ISBN-13: 978 1 84593 814 7). This book offers a transversal view of various extreme environments, including hydrothermal vents.
