Sir

The News Feature 'The next land rush' (Nature 451, 12–15; 2008) highlights the challenges faced by states attempting to claim areas of the sea floor under United Nations rules. Although some countries can finance well-resourced expeditions to confront these challenges, the developing world risks being left behind.

Unfortunately, it was not until developing states recently became aware of the extent of potentially eligible seabed territory that their national governments woke up. With the May 2009 submission deadline given by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea affecting most of them, a different rush has ensued — to ensure they are not overlooked in this historical process.

The United Nations is helping many states in Africa, the South Pacific and Latin America to make submissions, but many problems are unresolved as the deadline draws closer.

There are various avenues whereby the world's richer countries could provide much-needed support to developing states to ensure a fair, strong and complete Article 76 process and guarantee that the poorest states secure their access to deep-marine resources. We call on these countries to increase sharing of marine data and transfer of scientific and technical knowledge. This would be the spark for larger bi- and multilateral cooperation.