The Next Frontier in Mining: Deep Sea Exploitation in the Pacific

The ocean has a wealth of resources. From food, to travel, to pharmaceutical needs, and to energy, the ocean has always provided for mankind. And now, mankind is turning to the ocean for minerals and metals needed for the technology we use in our everyday lives. An exploration into the emerging industry of deep sea mining leads to more questions than answers.

[jameswest]

Hopefully, the ISA will make sure that when the polymetal nodules are harvested, they will be replaced with a suitable substance like volcanic rubble to provide habitat similar to artificial reefs that have provided habitat in the past. A lot of the sea life is not ancient. The muddy bottom has tracks on it but really doesn't provide much in the way of habitat or cover for most sea creatures. Rocks would be very helpful. One of the guys said "we don't know enough to know"...so I would imagine that a lot of the life does not grow as slow as he speculates but since there is going to be mining anyway, I think trying to repair the damage is better than lamenting.

[Stephanbitterwolf]

Is there any room for collaborations with deep sea mining companies and deep sea scientists? This video makes some good points about how these activities will affect the deep sea communities. I fail to see how activity below 1000m will affect the beaches. Beaches are far more impacted by development problems and global climate change. I think when we talk about deep sea mining and the environmental impact it will have, we need to focus on the deep sea ecosystem. This is the first mining operation of its kind. Therefore, how much can we say about the permanence of the damage. Don't vent communities constantly change? I like these videos because they make people think. However, we need to be careful not to destroy relationships with these kind of companies. Their success can make a huge impact (I think) on our own understanding of the deep sea environment. Research vessels are expensive for scientists (over 30, 000$/day), its not inconceivable to think that deep sea mining operations would have room for scientists to study the deep sea (for free). Furthermore, permanents sites such as the one here could allow for year-long monitoring projects. That's unheard of for deep sea research!

In conclusion, you are right, there are more questions than answers. However, collaborations could be very fruitful for scientists to answer these questions. It is important that we foster a strong relationship with the deep sea industries and have the information necessary to regulate deep sea mining such that the environmental impact is minimal.

For anyone else that might be interested here is the Environmental Impact Statement of the company and a link to a review article on the impacts of human disturbances in deep sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems: