{"id":7458,"date":"2025-04-10T01:02:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T01:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=7458"},"modified":"2025-04-10T01:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T01:02:17","slug":"op-ed-we-don-t-know-what-deep-sea-mining-would-do-to-the-midwater-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=7458","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: We Don’t Know What Deep Sea Mining Would Do to the Midwater Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Op-Ed: We Don’t Know What Deep Sea Mining Would Do to the Midwater Zone
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[By\u00a0Alexus Cazares-Nuesser]<\/em><\/p>\n

Picture an ocean world so deep and dark it feels like another planet \u2013 where creatures glow and life survives under crushing pressure.<\/p>\n

This is the\u00a0midwater zone, a hidden ecosystem that begins 650 feet (200 meters) below the ocean surface and sustains life across our planet. It includes the twilight zone and the midnight zone, where strange and delicate animals thrive in the near absence of sunlight. Whales and commercially valuable fish such as tuna rely on animals in this zone for food. But this unique ecosystem faces an unprecedented threat.<\/p>\n

As the demand for electric car batteries and smartphones grows, mining companies are turning their\u00a0attention to the deep sea, where precious metals such as nickel and cobalt can be found in potato-size nodules sitting on the ocean floor.<\/p>\n

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Images of marine life spotted in the midwater zone.\u00a0Bucklin, et al., Marine Biology, 2021. Photos by R.R. Hopcroft and C. Clarke (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and L.P. Madin (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution),\u00a0CC BY<\/em><\/p>\n

Deep-sea mining research and experiments over the past 40 years have shown how the removal of nodules can put seafloor creatures at risk by disrupting their\u00a0habitats. However, the process can also pose a danger to what lives above it, in the midwater ecosystem. If future deep-sea mining operations\u00a0release sediment plumes\u00a0into the water column, as proposed, the debris could\u00a0interfere with animals\u2019\u00a0feeding, disrupt food webs and alter animals\u2019 behaviors.<\/p>\n

As an\u00a0oceanographer studying marine life\u00a0in an area of the Pacific rich in these nodules, I believe that before countries and companies\u00a0rush to mine, we need to understand the risks. Is humanity willing to risk collapsing parts of an ecosystem we barely understand for resources that are important for our future?<\/p>\n

Mining the Clarion-Clipperton Zone<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beneath the Pacific Ocean southeast of Hawaii, a hidden treasure trove of polymetallic nodules can be found scattered across the seafloor. These\u00a0nodules form\u00a0as metals in seawater or sediment collect around a nucleus, such as a piece of shell or shark\u2019s tooth. They grow at an incredibly slow rate of a few millimeters per million years. The nodules are rich in metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese \u2013\u00a0key ingredients\u00a0for batteries, smartphones, wind turbines and military hardware.<\/p>\n

As demand for these technologies increases, mining companies are targeting this remote area, known as the\u00a0Clarion-Clipperton Zone, as well as a few\u00a0other zones\u00a0with similar nodules around the world.<\/p>\n

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A map shows mining targets in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, southeast of Hawaii, upper left. APEIs are protected areas.\u00a0McQuaid KA, Attrill MJ, Clark MR, Cobley A, Glover AG, Smith CR and Howell KL, 2020,\u00a0CC BY<\/em><\/p>\n

So far, only test mining has been carried out. However, plans for full-scale commercial mining are rapidly advancing.<\/p>\n

Exploratory deep-sea mining began in the 1970s, and the\u00a0International Seabed Authority\u00a0was established in 1994 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to regulate it. But it was not until 2022 that The Metals Company and Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. fully tested the\u00a0first integrated nodule collection system\u00a0in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.<\/p>\n

The companies are now planning full-scale mining operations in the region. They originally said they\u00a0expected to submit their application\u00a0to the ISA by June 27, 2025, but The Metals Company\u2019s CEO announced on March 27 that he was frustrated with the pace of ISA action and was\u00a0negotiating with the Trump administration\u00a0for approval to mine. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries that never ratified the\u00a0U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which authorizes the ISA.<\/p>\n

The ISA will\u00a0convene again in July 2025\u00a0to discuss critical issues such as mining regulations, guidelines and benefit-sharing mechanisms. Several countries have called for a\u00a0moratorium on seabed mining\u00a0until the risks are better understood.<\/p>\n