The primary objective of the MIDAS 2016 cruise was to test and evaluate a suite of new technologies and methodologies developed under the EU's Managing Impacts of Deep-seA reSource exploitation (MIDAS) project, specifically for application in the Environmental Management Framework (EMF) for Deep Sea Mining. The cruise served as a field demonstration, bringing together academic researchers and offshore industry professionals to assess the practical application of protocols for Environmental Baseline Surveys (EBS) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Key focus areas included testing semi-automated optical imagery analysis for habitat mapping and change detection, conducting ecotoxicological experiments on deep-sea fauna, and trialing active restoration techniques for cold-water coral communities. The operations on Condor Seamount provided a realistic deep-sea environment to validate these tools and their integration with industry-standard operational practices, navigation, and data management systems.

The MIDAS 2016 cruise aboard the RV Pelagia was a multidisciplinary expedition to the Condor Seamount in the Azores, co-funded by the European Union's MIDAS project (FP7) and Fugro. The expedition aimed to test and demonstrate novel technologies and protocols for environmental monitoring and impact assessment in the context of future Deep Sea Mining (DSM) activities, using an industry-standard ROV and integrated survey systems.