Members of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission failed to reach any agreement on reining in catches of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), which has been declared overfished for the past nine years.
A growing number of countries have lined up to stop the “Deep Sea Mining”, the controversial practice of extracting minerals from the ocean floor, during a highly anticipated global meeting in Kingston, Jamaica. Even if in the end a moratorium was not approved, observers believe that the very polarized debate at the meeting was a clear signal to stop this extractive practice which could have effects as early as the next few months, when the first licenses could be requested. Italy is among the few European countries that has not joined the request for a moratorium.
The international media spotlight has turned on Deep Sea Mining in recent weeks on the occasion of the annual meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the body linked to the United Nations with the mandate to manage the ocean depths, which met in Kingston from 15 July to 2 August 2024.
“The growing opposition to deep-sea mining from diverse societal sectors shows a clear lack of social license for this industry,” says Sofia Tsenikli, director of the Campaign for a Moratorium on Deep Sea Mining, which involves 115 non-governmental organizations, groups, research institutes and networks of small fishermen who oppose this practice, who participated as an observer at the meeting in Jamaica. “The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change,” Tsenikli said, “States must now protect the ocean and not allow any more damage.”
A decision on Deep Sea Mining was expected from the Kingston meeting, after some countries and companies made threats about the possible start of operations as early as the end of 2024. Faced with this deadline, the 168 States (plus the European Union) sitting at the ISA General Assembly were called to make a decision: either establish a moratorium and block extraction operations, or approve the “Mining Code”, a controversial regulation that will allow the ISA to grant the first licenses to countries and mining companies. The outcome of the meeting was mixed: the proposal for a moratorium was not voted on, but the bloc of countries between the Pacific, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America who oppose this practice increased to 32, after years of unconditional support.
Dig the ocean floor
Deep Sea Mining consists of extracting minerals from the bottom of the ocean through the use of vehicles plowing the seabed, pumping all the “polymetallic nodules” they encounter towards ships on the surface. In the process, developed so far only on an experimental basis, the ships isolate the metals, pouring all the waste sediment into the sea.
The reason why this technology is gaining international attention is the ever-increasing demand for critical minerals, such as nickel, cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, rare-earth elements, which has soared in double figures in recent years, in particular for the demand linked to the energy and digital transition – from batteries to photovoltaic panels, passing through semiconductors. Although the information currently available suggests that many of these minerals are not present in the ocean depths, the potential commercial interest is nevertheless pushing a large number of companies to bet on this new gold rush at the bottom of the ocean.
“Using minerals from the ocean depths to fight the climate crisis is a bit like smoking to fight stress,” comments Diva Amon, biologist and ocean floor expert at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. According to Amon, the main problem with managing any activity in the deep ocean is that we have no real scientific knowledge of these ecosystems. “What we know is that there is enormous biodiversity in the deep ocean,” Amon said, “we estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of species, many of which have never been discovered, much less named, much less studied.”
According to Amon, the mining activity would disturb around 15 centimeters of sediment, meaning that “most of the seabed would be destroyed.” In a study published in 2022, the researcher estimated that the companies’ current projections interest a total area of 500 thousand km2, which could impact 1.5 million km2 and a water column of 6.4 million km2: “This will potentially be the largest mining activity ever on planet Earth,” she said.
Amon also underlines an aspect regarding the slowness of these ecosystems, where time passes in a very different way, to regenerate: “They are very slow,” states the researcher, citing the peculiarities of some species that live at these depths, such as octopuses, which can incubate their eggs on the seabed for four years, or Greenland sharks, which live on average 400 years and reach maturity at 150 years, or like corals, which live up to 4 thousand years in these habitats.
In recent days the debate on Deep Sea Mining has also been stirred by the publication of a study on Nature, which tested the action of polymetallic nodules, at the center of extraction activities, in producing oxygen in the depths of the sea through a chemical reaction, even in the absence of sunlight.
Two blocs of countries
These topics were discussed for the first time at the ISA assembly, after in the last few years the agency had supported the mining activities. “The ISA is truly a different place today than when I started working on this topic three years ago,” Emma Watson, an ISA official at the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, who followed the authority’s work in Kingston, tells us. “Before, no one talked about environmental problems in the meetings, while today many Countries have made statements to express their concern,” she said.
In recent years the activity of the ISA has been criticized for reasons of transparency. The former general secretary Michael Lodge was at the center of international investigations published in newspapers such as New York Times or the Guardian, who questioned its independence from the mining industry. The Kingston assembly elected a new general secretary, the Brazilian oceanographer Leticia Carvalho. In the meantime, attention on Deep Sea Mining has also grown thanks to the position taken by stars such as Leonardo Di Caprio, the famous oceanographer Sylvia Earle, Sir David Attenborough, and several prominent names from the United Nations, including the Secretary General António Guterres.
According to Wilson, media attention changed the cards on the table, creating a large bloc of countries that oppose the Deep Sea Mining. “Palau is the country that leads the group, having first called for the moratorium two years ago at a UN conference on oceans,” Wilson told us. According to the expert, other committed countries are Costa Rica, Germany, France, Chile, Brazil, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, while in the last week Malta, Tuvalu, Guatemala, Honduras and Austria joined the group.
On the opposite side, Nauru, a small state in Oceania, wants to start activities this year, in partnership with the company Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), controlled by the Canadian based The Metals Company (TMC). Countries such as Japan, China and Norway have moved in support of this initiative, while the Norwegian parliament also approved a decision to start a mining activity in the depths of the Arctic.
Other countries, such as India, Ghana or Jamaica, called for additional research, showing support for this kind of mining: “India stands ready to continue facilitating seabed minerals exploration training,” said Mayank Joshi, Indian representative to the ISA. “Greater focus on the development and transfer of marine technology would lay the foundations for equitable participation by all States and contribute significantly towards the achievement of relevant Sustainable Development Goals,” Joshi said in a statement.
In the end, the bloc of countries supporting the Deep Sea Mining achieved to stop the vote for a moratorium, but observers agree that, in this new scenario, the first licenses are unlikely to be issued this year, paving the way for a new round at the next meeting in July 2025.
Which side is Italy on?
“Italy is really isolated in Europe,” Wilson says. “Other Western European countries have spoken in favor of a moratorium or a precautionary approach, but Italy is one of the few that has not taken this step,” she said.
Italy’s uncertain position may have links to economic interests: although no Italian company currently holds exploration licenses, many groups have a potential interest in the development of this activity. “Italian companies could likely enter this field through the development of technologies and tools to support other foreign mining companies,” states Greenpeace Italia, in a press briefing released a few days before the meeting.
The NGO mapped thirteen companies potentially interested in the Deep Sea Mining industry, in the fields of defense, electronics, automotive, naval industry, storage, batteries, up to companies specialized in underwater services and technologies. None of these companies has so far expressed positions against Deep Sea Mining, while a long list of international players, including Google, BMW, Volvo, Renault, have publicly declared their support for a moratorium.
Read the original story (in Italian) on:
(cover photo: Egor Kamelev on Pexels)