Ocean-floor Mining: Going Off the Deep End
U.S. extends deep-sea mining exploration permits as new study highlights need for more research
The deep ocean is a mysterious realm that humans barely understand. Yet corporations and countries are moving quickly to start mining the deep-sea floor, threatening to destroy that pristine environment before scientists can properly study it.
The U.S. just extended a pair of deep-sea mining exploration permits on Sept. 7, giving little consideration to their possible impact on the interconnected web of marine life.
Technology is driving the quest — both advances in remote mining machines that can operate miles underwater and the rising demand for gold, copper, cobalt, and rare earth minerals used in smart phones and other electronic gadgets. But this new gold rush could kill undiscovered species, disrupt essential biological processes, and forever alter deep-sea ecosystems before we can even understand the long-term damage we’re inflicting.
Oxford University scientists last month published important research detailing how little we really know about the deep ocean, the largest habitat on the planet. There have been just nine published scientific studies of life more than two miles below the ocean surface — which accounts for over half of the planet’s surface — because of the difficulty in surveying that dark, high-pressure environment.
The deep ocean teems with life not found anywhere else, from giant tube worms and frilled sharks to newly discovered “faceless fish, giant sea spiders, and blobby sea pigs.” Much of that life could be wiped out by the ocean equivalent of mountaintop removal mining, violently scraping the seabed for valuable metals.
“Today humans have an unprecedented ability to effect the lives of creatures living in one of the most remote environments on earth — the deep sea. At a time where the exploitation of deep-sea resources is increasing, scientists are still trying to understand basic aspects of the biology and ecology of deep sea communities,” said Christopher Roterman, co-author of the study that was published in Molecular Ecology.
The study dropped just a couple weeks after the International Seabed Authority, the 168-nation body that oversees deep-sea mining, convened in secret to set standards and regulations based on undisclosed industry information and environmental review.
Meanwhile, the United States on Sept. 7 granted five-year extensions to Lockheed Martin for a pair of permits to explore deep-sea mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone about halfway between Mexico and Hawaii.
Last time the permits from 1984 were renewed, we at the Center for Biological Diversity were so concerned about their potential to wreak havoc in the deep-sea ecosystem that we sued the federal government in 2015. In a court-ordered settlement late last year, the federal government agreed to do an in-depth study of the risks to wildlife and underwater ecosystems before the company can start on the water work in the area. That should put the brakes on this project for now, but many others are moving forward.
More than two dozen exploratory deep-sea mining permits have been issued for the South Pacific. Solwara I, permitted by Papua New Guinea to a Canadian company, could be fully operational as soon as next year.
So this is a crucial moment for the health of our deep oceans. We must save deep-sea life from strip mining the seafloor and resist attempts by the feds to open our marine monuments to mining, drilling and destruction.
So before we start recklessly ripping into the deep ocean seabed, let’s reflect on the lasting damage that we can do to it and protect our oceans for generations to come.
