Seabed mining is a hot-button issue, with talks underway in Kingston this week to negotiate the ground rules for mineral extraction from the ocean’s depths.
The talks come days after a two-year window for the International Seabed Authority to set out regulations governing seafloor mining within international waters expired on Sunday.
That period was built into a treaty clause, which was triggered when Nauru notified the ISA of its intention to support mineral extraction via Canadian start-up The Metals Company in 2021.
The minerals in question sit on the bottom of the ocean floor in the form of polymetallic nodules – potato-sized aggregations of rare earth metals like cobalt and nickel. These nodules are being positioned by the industry as palm-sized holy grails of materials needed for clean energy technology.
At present 31 contracts across 22 companies have been approved by the ISA.
But as previously reported by Cosmos, a collection of scientists, national governments and environmental NGOs are opposed to the ISA granting licences without, among other things, adequate protections for marine ecosystems.
In May, researchers published a checklist of 5,000 previously unknown species from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ).
Scraping the pitch-black depths of international waters to remove nodules may harbour an existential threat to such species – not only due to physical habitat disruption but also the risk of churning toxic metals across the environment. German research, also published in May, suggests nodules may post health hazards due to radiation exposure.
Underwater noise pollution is also a potential disruptor to marine species like whales reliant on echolocation to navigate their environment.
WWF International has led a campaign against deep seabed mining, calling for a moratorium on seabed mining and drawing support from automakers like BMW, Renault, Volvo and VW and tech companies like Google, Philips and Samsung. Last month WWF criticised moves by Norway to begin opening its territorial waters to seabed mining. In a statement, WWF’s campaign spokesperson Jessica Battle described it as “one of the worst environmental decisions Norway has ever made”.