Saving Seafood

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

Fishing fleets and deep sea miners converge in the Pacific

May 13, 2025 — The search for critical minerals could put deep-sea mining and commercial fishing on a collision course.

In 2023, a study published in Nature Magazine predicted a collision between Pacific tuna fleets and deep-sea mining interests as both converged on the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a 1.7 million square mile region between Hawaii and Mexico. Lead author Dr. Diva Amon and her colleagues predicted that global warming would drive tuna, particularly yellowfin, bigeye, and skipjack, to seek refuge in the cooler waters of the CCZ. At the same time, countries and companies from around the Pacific Rim and beyond are eager to conduct deep-sea mining in the CCZ, and President Trump signed an Executive Order on April 24, 2025, aimed at “revitalizing American dominance in deep-sea minerals.”

The existence of rare earth minerals in the CCZ has been known since 1873, when the British research ship HMS Challenger hauled up polymetallic nodules laden with manganese, copper, cobalt, and more. Since 1994, the International Seabed Authority has regulated deep-sea mining in areas outside any national jurisdiction as part of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Authority currently has contracts with 17 companies to explore mining in about 500,000 square miles of the zone. While there is no active mining in the Clarion Clipperton Zone yet, all contract holders are undertaking geological and environmental studies as part of their contractual obligations to determine the feasibility and impacts of deep-sea mining.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

In Real Life: Mining the Deep Sea

November 27, 2023 — Norway could become the first country in the world to mine the deep sea, but many scientists and environmentalists fear that this might blow open the door for a new frontier of extraction, with companies and governments from the Arctic to the Pacific in a race to reap the riches of the ocean floor.

The Norwegian parliament will soon decide whether to open up a section of the Arctic Sea to deep-sea mining, starting with exploration.

But why mine the deep sea? Access to minerals like cobalt is critical for the green transition because they’re used to make things like batteries for electric vehicles and solar panels.

Some people think mining different parts of the deep sea—all the way down to 21,000 feet below—holds a solution and profits. Hydrothermal vents spew out magma-heated water, leaving mineral deposits.

Read the full article at KIVTV