The New Enemy of The Ocean You May Not Even Know About

We all know that there are so many modern day threats which are facing the ocean: plastic pollution, climate change, oil spills, overfishing; sadly, the list could go on. Yet there is a new danger lurking over the oceans and one that you might not even be aware of. With many land-based resources reaching their extinction after decades of heavy extraction to feed our consumerism, miners are now looking towards the oceans to become the new industrial frontier.

Many of us only experience the shallows and the surface of the ocean in our lifetimes, the remainder of it is too difficult, dangerous or demanding for us to see with our own eyes. This means that many do not realise the depths of the oceans are not one infinite sandy plain stretching right across the seabed. Instead, our seafloor is a complex landscape filled with as many diverse features as the land that we stand on. Towering pinnacles and mountains rise from the seabed, underwater volcanoes and hydrothermal vents spout boiling water into twirling plumes and deep canyons rip through extensive plains. Hidden within these features are many of the very same minerals that are found on land including iron, copper, nickel, silver and gold. It is thought that scientists first discovered these hidden glittering resources in 1868 and ever since, humankind has furiously wondered how they can extract them. Fast forward to the 21st century and technology has advanced far enough for us to exploit these elusive minerals. For example, in Namibia, diamonds are now plucked from the coastal waters while heavy machinery in Papua New Guinea has been exploring underwater hot springs lined with precious metals for years.

So far, most resource extraction has occurred in nearshore waters but for mining companies, securing permits for international waters, which are treasure troves of almost unimaginable levels of minerals, is the grand jackpot. As we look towards green, sustainable futures, many of these minerals rise in importance as they are crucial components of smartphones, laptops, solar panels and electric cars. As such, many believe that underwater mining is the answer to abandoning fossil fuels for good and moving to a world powered by batteries. Yet this change comes with its own cost as deep-sea mining could further threaten our oceans at this already perilous time.

So how does this modern age method of mining work? Under the waves, there are several places we can extract metals from. One is the wide underwater plains which are scattered with nodules. Nodules are chunks of rock which cover the seafloor and can range from the size of a golf ball to the size of a volleyball. These spheres have been formed over millions of years, accumulating at an extortionately slow rate and today there are thousands littering the sand, all containing some form of precious metal. To extract these, remotely operated vehicles move in neat rows across the ocean floor, scraping away at the top five inches of the sand and rock bottom. Above them, floating ships use huge hoses to suck up the loose sediment and remove any metallic objects before flushing the remaining sediment back into the sea. This whole process creates multiple environmental consequences. Firstly, the scraping of the ocean floor destroys the seabed which has taken millions of years to evolve and scientists believe the seabed itself may take hundreds of years to recover while the nodules are unlikely to replenish while humans still walk the Earth. In the short term, if this extraction occurs in shallow coastal waters, our beautiful, bustling with life coral reefs will not survive and all the animals they support will also be lost. The motion of carving away at the seabed could also cause carefully stored carbon to be released into the water where it can bubble to the surface and spill into our increasingly hot atmosphere. If this wasn’t enough, the sorted sediment which is pumped back into the sea is another major concern. If the sediment is released back onto the surface of the ocean, it can travel on the winding currents for hundreds of kilometres before finally falling back down through the water and settling on whatever ecosystem it comes across. This could mean high levels of sediment settling on coral reefs or seagrass beds, blocking the sunlight they need to grow. It could also settle on animals themselves or smother and kill plankton, the very basis of the marine food chain which supports fish, whales, sharks and many more uncountable species. Not only does this threaten the fishing industry and food supplies but it threatens the beautiful creatures which provide us with so much awe and inspiration. In addition to this, there is also the impact of noise and light pollution from ships which affects how many species communicate, navigate, locate food and hide from predators. It seems that if we change the shape of the seafloor, we could actually change the shape of our whole marine ecosystem.

Hydrothermal vents are another major source of precious metals and often the ocean feature most often dreamed about by mining executives. Hydrothermal vents are where cold sea water enters cracks in the Earth’s crust on the seafloor and the water is heated by red hot magma before exiting back into the sea, often in a large plume of smoke. These areas have unique physical and chemical processes which has led to the accumulation of large metal deposits. The Lost City is a hydrothermal field lying below the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and is full of tall rock chimneys and pinnacles with the largest, standing at 60 metres, being named ‘Poseidon’. These vents are thought to be 30,000 years old and are packed full of crab, shrimp, sea urchins, eels and corals. In fact, most vents around the world have incredibly high diversity and an abundance of endemic species which are species that only live in one particular geographic region. Simply, if that species is lost at one hydrothermal field, we lose them from the planet as they become globally extinct. The Lost City is heralded for its ecological importance as well as its scientific promise as it is thought that all life on Earth developed in very similar conditions to these boiling environments, potentially holding the answers scientists have been searching for over centuries. Despite this, exploratory licences have been given to mining companies allowing them to explore The Lost City and assess its potential for precious metal extraction. Shockingly, despite the major environmental consequences that deep-sea mining incurs, there is very little international legislation which protects our oceans from this new enemy. So far, no exploratory licences have been turned down, even when they are taking place in ecologically critical areas. Our deep-sea species are particularly at risk as not only are many rare and endemic, they are also some of the longest living on Earth. For example, the Greenland shark has a lifespan of 400 years which means if the population dramatically suffers from mining, it will take hundreds of years for them to recover, if they manage to at all.

Therefore, deep water mining remains a highly contentious issue. We want to protect our planet from global warming by moving towards battery powered technology whilst also stopping rainforests, deserts and mountains from being destroyed by hungry diggers. Yet at what cost to the ocean will this happen? It is widely accepted that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the depths of the ocean as its intense pressure and eternal darkness prevent even modern technology reaching its deepest secrets. Yet this means we do not know what we will lose if we allow widespread deep-sea mining; in essence, we are destroying our planet before we even realise what we have. While we lose species, habitats and potential medicines, we also lose both ours and Earth’s long, turbulent and incredible history. Many insist that deep water mining is safe, but how do they know?

The answer to our environmental problems remains unclear. It seems that when we solve one issue, we often only create another. Yet there are things you can do to help limit your impact on our precious planet. You can decide to become a conscious consumer and buy products that have limited impact on Earth or simply just reduce the total amount of products you buy. It is up to you to decide what you think the best way forward for our planet is and if you feel you know what is right for both our human and animal populations, why not petition or protest and play your part in halting the new enemies of our planet before their actions become irreversible.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood