April 9, 2026 — With federal lease boundaries for deep-sea mining now stretching to within 46 miles of Guam’s coastline, island lawmakers and resource managers are pushing back, warning that without stronger local law and enforcement, the threat is no longer distant or theoretical.
Bill 253-38, introduced by Sen. Therese Terlaje and co-authored by five colleagues, would ban the extraction of seabed minerals from Guam’s territorial waters and block permits for related facilities or infrastructure. Following an April 1 public hearing, Terlaje said the bill will gain sharper teeth before it reaches the session floor.
The most immediate addition targets enforcement, a gap that drew concern from testifiers. “Any person who violates subsection (a) or (b) of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $50,000 per day for each day the violation continues,” Terlaje told The Guam Daily Post, citing language recommended by the Department of Agriculture.
The bill’s current port provision only allows the Guam Port Authority to act after receiving notice from a federal agency, a mechanism Department of Agriculture Director Chelsa Muna called neither systematic nor timely. She recommended empowering port officials to act on credible information and requiring vessels to certify compliance with extraction laws as a condition of entry.
“A mining company that cannot use Guam to resupply, crew change or stage equipment faces a fundamentally different operational calculation than one that can,” Muna said. “That leverage is real, and this bill should use it fully.”
Terlaje said denying logistical support from Guam, including port access and infrastructure, is central to the bill’s reach, even though jurisdiction stops at the three-mile territorial boundary.