Highlight seabed images taken by ROV in the Ocean Minerals Company (OMCO) during expedition JC241 in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (Pacific Ocean, 2023).

A collection of benthic still images was obtained using an oblique-looking camera mounted on the UK ISIS Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), deployed from the RRS James Cook during cruise JC241 in the abyssal plain (~4700 m depth) of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Pacific Ocean, in 2023. The images were obtained in an area that included a site disturbed by a deep-sea mining machine in 1979. The mining machine (9 m wide, 14 m long, 4.5 m high) was operated by the Ocean Minerals Company (OMCO) from the ship Hughes Glomar Explorer on the seafloor between 15 and 18 March 1979 at a site centred 13°44'N 126°13.5'W. The images show the seabed covered by polymetallic nodules and the disturbance caused by the past mining activities. The data were collected by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK as part of the NERC-funded Seabed Mining And Resilience To EXperimental impact (SMARTEX) project (NE/T003537/1).