Saving Seafood

Deep-sea mining interests raise alarms among Mariana Trench communities

December 11, 2025 — U.S.-led plans to mine the deep seabed have gained momentum since President Donald Trump signed an executive order that called for the industry’s rapid formation to bolster U.S. national security. One recent development emerged in November, when U.S. agency Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) signaled its intent to open offshore areas of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) — an area known to harbor mineral-rich seamounts, hydrothermal vents and abyssal plains — to deep-sea mineral exploration and development.

On Nov. 12, BOEM issued a request for information, or RFI, which indicated its interest in offering mineral rights to companies through lease agreements along the CNMI’s outer continental shelf, a process that could eventually allow commercial mining to proceed on CNMI’s deep seabed. The publication of the RFI included the opening of a 30-day public comment period.

Yet several government officials in both the CNMI and the neighboring island nation of Guam — both of which are U.S. territories that could be directly affected by deep-sea mining in the region — have raised concerns about the brief window they’ve been given to respond to BOEM’s proposal. Some local residents are also pushing back against the proposal, arguing that deep-sea mining would irreversibly damage the marine environment, while disregarding the community’s deep cultural connection to the ocean. If seabed mining does go ahead in the region, critics say it would become another form of colonial exploitation in a region already heavily used by the United States for commercial and military purposes, at the expense of local communities.

Read the full article at Mongabay

What Scientists Found When a Deep Sea Mining Company Invited Them In

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.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Trump admin eyes deep-sea mining in CNMI, 100-plus miles offshore Guam

November 20, 2025 — The federal government is eyeing a potential offshore mining project near the Mariana Trench, in an area around 128 nautical miles east of Saipan and around the same distance east of Guam, in response to executive orders from President Donald Trump.

Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Gov. David Apatang on Nov. 15 jointly asked for an additional 120-day extension on a comment period closing on Dec. 12.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, BOEM, announced on Nov. 10 a request for information seeking interest in commercial leasing for offshore mining operations near the CNMI and American Samoa.

Read the full article at Pacific Daily News

Feds wade closer to mineral lease in US waters

November 11, 2025 — The Trump administration is inching closer to opening U.S. waters to the first mineral lease sale in decades amid booming industry interest and growing anxiety among environmental groups.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, on Monday said it has identified areas off the coast of American Samoa for a mineral lease, and is seeking information about holding a lease sale off the shores of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The step signals agencies are moving forward with reviewing activity tied to deep-sea mining in U.S. waters, right as companies line up for permission to plumb the ocean depths for minerals both in domestic and international waters.

Read the full article at E&E News

Deep-sea mining risks disrupting the marine food web, study warns

November 6, 2025 — Drilling for minerals deep in the ocean could have immense consequences for the tiny animals at the core of the vast marine food web — and ultimately affect fisheries and the food we find on our plates, according to a new study.

Deep-sea mining means drilling the seafloor for “polymetallic nodules” loaded with critical minerals including copper, iron, zinc and more. While not yet commercialized, nations are pursuing deep-sea operations amid rising demand for these minerals in electric vehicles and other parts of the energy transition, as well as for technology and military use.

The researchers examined water and waste gathered from a deep-sea mining trial in 2022.

What the study discovered

University of Hawaii researchers studied an area of the Pacific Ocean called the “twilight zone,” about 650-5,000 feet (200-1,500 meters) below sea level. Their peer-reviewed findings, published Thursday in the Nature Communications scientific journal, say mining waste could affect anything from tiny shrimp smaller than .08 inches (2 millimeters) long to fish 2 inches (5 centimeters) long.

That’s because, after mining companies bring the mineral-rich nodules up to the surface, they have to release excess sea water, ocean floor dirt and sediment back into the ocean. That creates a murky plume of particles about the same size as the naturally occurring food particles normally eaten by the zooplankton that swim at that depth.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Nations ratify world’s first treaty to protect marine biodiversity in international waters

September 22, 2025 — A major agreement to protect marine diversity in the high seas was struck Friday when Morocco became the 60th nation to sign on, paving the way for the treaty to take effect next year.

The High Seas Treaty is the first legal framework aimed at protecting biodiversity in international waters, those that lie beyond the jurisdiction of any single country. International waters account for nearly two-thirds of the ocean and nearly half of Earth’s surface and are vulnerable to threats including overfishing, climate change and deep-sea mining.

“The high seas are the world’s largest crime scene — they’re unmanaged, unenforced, and a regulatory legal structure is absolutely necessary,” said Johan Bergenas, senior vice president of oceans at the World Wildlife Fund.

Still, the pact’s strength is uncertain as some of the world’s biggest players — the U.S., China, Russia and Japan — have yet to ratify. The U.S. and China have signed, signaling intent to align with the treaty’s objectives without creating legal obligations, while Japan and Russia have been active in preparatory talks.

Ratification triggers a 120-day countdown for the treaty to take effect. But much more work remains to flesh out how it will be implemented, financed and enforced.

“You need bigger boats, more fuel, more training and a different regulatory system,” Bergenas said. “The treaty is foundational — now begins the hard work.”

Read the full article at PBS News

Deep-sea mining is a false solution to our challenges (commentary)

August 20, 2025 — The deep sea, the planet’s most expansive and least understood ecosystem, remains largely unexplored. Yet while the deep sea may seem a dark and distant space, events underwater directly impact our lives, from essential services like climate regulation to fisheries and the marine food web. While scientific understanding of this realm is nascent, a new industry is rapidly emerging driven by the demand for rare metals essential for batteries, microchips and AI: deep-sea mining.

In the past three years, more than 38 nations have voiced support for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, a rapid pace by the standards of multilateral lawmaking, and the equivalent of one new country signing on per month. This progress marks a major shift from just a few years ago, when states were either supportive of mining, reluctant to take a position, or were simply uninformed.

The triggering of a treaty provision known as the “two-year rule” by the nation of Nauru in 2021, intended to accelerate deep-sea mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction, brought increased attention and scrutiny to the activity. Nevertheless, some private actors are pushing for the granting of applications for commercial deep-sea mining of minerals like copper, nickel and cobalt, despite significant concerns from global leaders, the scientific community and the public at large.

This divergence between scientific understanding and prevailing narratives came into sharp focus at the recent annual meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). There, nations gathered to discuss matters profoundly consequential for the future of the deep ocean. However, there also seemed to be a broad understanding that a strong regulatory framework based on science, equity and precaution must be in place before an informed decision can be taken, and that no mining activities should commence in the meantime.

Moving forward, it’s imperative that we actively counter misinformation, significantly invest in scientific research, and, in the interim, take concrete measures to ensure that deep-sea mining activities do not commence in the absence of clear science, robust regulations, sufficient safeguards, and equity.

Read the full article at Mongabay

Experts warn US, seabed mining sector’s defiance of International Seabed Authority could have wider consequences

August 1, 2025 — Experts returning from the annual meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica, warn increased efforts by The Metals Company (TMC) and the U.S. government to start seabed mining – despite a lack of  authority approval – could have wider implications for the health of global fisheries and the rule of law at sea.

The push by TMC to start seabed minign comes as experts continue to assert the scientific knowledge needed to effectively and safely regulate mining of the deep seabed is still incomplete. Despite the continued pressure from regulatory bodies, TMC recently announced plans to commercialize its mining operation in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) – an environmental management area in the Pacific Ocean.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

‘Significant declines’ in some species after deep-sea mining: Research

July 3, 2025 — Deep-sea mining could impact marine life stretching from the tiniest bottom dwellers to apex predators like swordfish and sharks, a major piece of industry-funded research found Thursday.

The Metals Company—a leading  firm—paid Australia’s government science agency to pore through data collected during test mining in the remote Pacific Ocean.

Huge tracts of Pacific Ocean seabed are carpeted in polymetallic nodules, bulbous lumps of rock that are rich in metals used in battery production—such as cobalt and nickel.

The Metals Company is pushing to be the first to mine these nodules in international waters, striving to exploit a remote expanse known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

Australia’s government science agency released a series of technical reports on Thursday detailing how mining could be managed.

Bottom-dwellers such as , marine worms, starfish and crustaceans could see “significant declines in abundance immediately following mining,” research found.

Read the full article at PHYS.org