An Update on Deep Sea Mining

Deep sea mining is a hot topic of late as international talks on this subject become increasingly common and more heated. This debate is involving not only countries but scientists, conservationists, businesses and individuals as everyone battles to have their say on this potential new venture. Yet why is deep sea mining suddenly such a big deal?

Back in 2021, the tiny island nation, Nauru, asked the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for a commercial licence which would allow them to begin deep sea mining. The ISA asked for two years to consider this proposal as once one country begins exploiting the seabed for minerals, many others will want to follow suit. Two years was thought to be enough time to gather evidence on the impact this activity would have on the marine environment and set out agreed regulations but with the deadline having just passed, it seems a final decision is no closer to being made. This led to three weeks of international talks being held in Jamaica in July. After 21 days, an agreement has still not been finalised and so more formal talks have been arranged for 2024 whilst the world waits to see what will happen next.

Currently, almost 200 countries, including Spain, Germany and Switzerland, are calling for a pause and temporary ban on deep sea mining due to its potential environmental impacts. Surprisingly, even large businesses have made their opposition to deep sea mining known, including BMW, Volvo, Google and Samsung. For many of these, their argument lies in the fact that we simply don’t know the deep sea well enough to fully understand what the environmental consequences of mining would be; in fact, it is often said that we know more about deep space than we do about the deep ocean. With unknown species and habitats filling the deep, how can we put protection measures in place when we don’t know what there is to protect? Others argue that eager mining companies are creating a false sense of urgency about the availability of precious metals, with terrestrial supplies lasting another decade and by that time, recycling technology will likely have advanced enough that we won’t need to exploit the ocean. Once mining companies have set up their operations, these ventures are likely to run for 20 to 30 years to ensure they make their money back and so careful thought needs to go into making the right decision now to help protect our oceans going forward.

That’s not to say that there isn’t any deep sea mining occurring already. The ISA has already approved 31 contracts for exploration which aim to find ways we can turn small scale exploits into large scale extraction. Combined, these contracts cover an area of the seabed the size of Mongolia. Furthermore, the ISA can only provide mining permits for work in international waters, countries are free to explore their own national waters, which extend 200 miles out from their coastlines, as they please. Norway has already set aside 280,000 square kilometres of ocean which mining companies can apply for licences to explore whilst Japan, India and the UK are also interested in possibly pursing this avenue.

Currently, the proposed sites which lie in international waters are in the Pacific Ocean. The Clarion Clipperton Zone is one of these and is thought to be home to 5,000 different animals. Another is the Pacific Prime Crust, a unique landscape filled with hot hydrothermal vents, underwater mountains and vast plains, all lying up to 6,500 metres below the surface of the ocean. On land, this would be an environment worth protecting, so why not underwater? These harsh environments are home to unique creatures which have astonishingly adapted to living with no light, incredible levels of pressure and both the cold ocean and unbelievably hot water from hydrothermal vents. Whilst many of the species living here are unknown, scientists believe they could play important roles in the marine food web, mitigating climate change and could provide powerful new medicines.

The current goldrush for precious metals in the deep sea could be a disaster for this fragile underwater environment but many argue the zinc, cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese lying on the seabed is essential to our modern world. These resources are abundant on land but can be very hard to reach and require the destruction of many natural landscapes. These materials are used in phones, turbines and EV batteries and so are argued to be essential for the green transition the world needs to combat climate change in the long run. In order to extract these resources from the seabed, large robotic machines are sent down to depths of over 200 metres. Here, they excavate the seabed much as they do on land. Mineral and metal nodules stick up like small pinnacles from the ocean floor and these would be a prime target for harvesting despite them taking thousands of years to form. Once extracted, the metals are pumped up to the ship waiting at the surface whilst wastewater and debris are dumped back into the ocean. So far, we have no proof that this can be carried out in an environmentally safe way whilst tests have seen pollution spills and large machinery stuck at the bottom of the ocean.

There are many impacts deep sea mining may have on the ocean and some come directly from the machinery used. The machines which are designed to drive along the seabed extracting metals weigh more than the weight of a blue whale which could be highly damaging to the seabed in addition to the dredging which would be taking place. Despite the harsh environment, delicate coral gardens are actually found in the deep ocean and are home to many species. Tubeworms rise upwards from the seafloor and snails use these as a safe anchor to lay their eggs on. The manganese nodules which are now a highly prized commodity anchor sponge stalks upon which ghost octopus lay their eggs. The dredging can also stir up sediment into plumes which can travel hundreds of miles and have a major impact on multiple marine ecosystems. If water clarity falls, many different species struggle to communicate visually with each other, especially those using bioluminescence. This would impact an incredible number of species as there are believed to be more bioluminescent animals in the deep sea than there are species on land. Swirling sediment can also settle on and smother coral gardens whilst it can be absorbed into the bloodstream and tissue of living beings and given that it may contain metals, could be incredibly toxic. We know of deep sea creatures such as dumbo octopus, sea pangolins, brittle stars and sponges, some of the oldest creatures on Earth, but we also still have so many more to discover and learn about.

Pollution, of many kinds, is also a large threat. Light pollution can disrupt these creatures which have adapted to survive and hunt in total darkness whilst the noise of machinery and ships can confuse and agitate animals which may move to new habitats or deviate from traditional migration routes to escape. Noise levels would also be higher on the ocean’s surface due to an increase in ship traffic which in turn would affect some of our better known species, including dolphins, whales, tuna and sharks. Already, the seafood industry appears largely against deep sea mining with seafood groups representing one third of the world’s tuna industry as well as major supermarkets supporting a temporary ban on the practice. Many tuna fisheries are worried that tuna will migrate in response to the disruption whilst the dumping of mining waste could kill off a portion of the population or make the meat unsafe to eat. These concerns may be well founded as a small preliminary study in Japan found a 43% decrease in fish and shrimp species in areas impacted by sediment pollution from mining. We wouldn’t allow waste to be dumped on food producing regions on land, so why accept it in the ocean?

There are already cultural impacts being felt too, such as in Papua New Guinea where the tradition of shark calling is declining. Historically, men would sing the name of their ancestor and shake coconut rattles in order to lure sharks into the bay for them to catch. They believe that sharks carry the spirit of their ancestors and that by following this tradition, they will be permitted to capture and kill sharks for food without coming to harm. In the modern world however, the sharks are now being scared away from the coastline due to the number of boats being used in mining explorations, leaving their calls mostly unanswered.

If we want to have our say on deep sea mining heard, now is the time. This is an incredibly important decision which can affect the environmental condition of our oceans for decades to come and scarily, this activity is taking place in incredibly remote areas far from prying journalists, outraged residents and protesting environmental groups. These decisions about mining are taking place behind closed doors without the knowledge of a large portion of the population and so it is up to each of us to make sure we are educated on the matter and to make our opinions on it heard. We must hold the countries and companies involved accountable for their actions to protect the planet we all share.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood