Elisabetta Menini is a first year PhD student in Marine Science and Conservation at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University with a Fulbright scolarship from Italy. She completed two masters and different professional experiences in the fields of Marine Biology and Maritime Spatial Planning, all developed internationally. Her work is focused on the management and conservation of ecosystem services in the deep-sea in Area Beyond National Jurisdiction. She is interested on understanding the impact of seabed mining and the international governance behind it, and she want to explore how to apply vertical zoning management in the deep sea using new proxy such as environmental DNA.