December 8, 2025 — Industrial mining of the seabed could reduce the abundance and diversity of tiny animals living in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, a new study found.
The study, published Friday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, was funded by The Metals Company, which is vying to become the first company to conduct commercial mining on the ocean floor.
Researchers from the Natural History Museum in London analyzed samples from the seafloor before and after a mining test and found that the number of worms, minute crustaceans and other small animals in the path of the mining vehicle fell 37 percent. The variety of the creatures also declined by 32 percent.
The data came from over 4,000 meters below the waves of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico that is targeted for seabed mining because it is rich with potato-sized nodules that contain nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese. The metals are used in renewable-energy technologies and also have military applications.
The Metals Company has spent some $250 million studying the environmental effects of seabed mining. The dozens of researchers involved had contracts that allowed them to independently analyze and publish their results. This emerging collection of work represents one of the largest and most comprehensive research efforts conducted in the Clarion-Clipper Zone to date.
More than a dozen countries, through state-owned entities or sponsored companies, hold United Nations permits to explore more than one million square kilometers of deep sea floor around the world. The agency’s International Seabed Authority has not yet approved commercial mining.