Saving Seafood

VIRGINIA: Comment period closes on proposed Virginia offshore mineral lease

August 26, 2026 — The public comment period has closed on a proposal that could lead to commercial mineral leasing in federal waters off Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management accepted comments through Aug. 22 on a request for information and interest covering about 1.77 million acres, or 2,764 square miles, of the Outer Continental Shelf. The area lies three to 63.5 miles off the Delmarva Peninsula, seaward of Accomack and Northampton counties, in water depths ranging from approximately 30′ to 410′.

The proceeding is an early planning step and does not authorize exploration, dredging or mineral production. BOEM will use the submissions to determine whether to identify areas for possible leasing and begin an environmental review. Any lease would be awarded through a competitive process rather than directly to the company that initiated the request.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Tampa, Fla., submitted the unsolicited lease-sale request in November 2025. The company is interested in exploring for heavy mineral sands containing titanium-bearing minerals, zirconium-bearing minerals and rare earth element-bearing minerals, including monazite. Odyssey has a collaboration agreement with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., Houston, which would serve as the dredging contractor if the project advances.

Unlike proposed mining projects targeting polymetallic nodules in deep ocean basins, the Virginia proposal involves comparatively shallow continental shelf deposits that Odyssey says could be recovered using conventional dredging and mineral-processing equipment.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Environmental review of seabed mining to come after leases are sold

August 25, 2026 — The federal agency pushing to open the seabed near the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to mineral mining confirmed Saturday that it will not conduct a full environmental study of the actual mining process until after companies already hold leases, a disclosure that has done little to ease objections from Guam senators.

The Marine Minerals Administration, formerly the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, responded to questions from The Guam Daily Post about its decision to publish a proposed leasing notice for the Marianas sale, known as PACM-2, three months ahead of the schedule the agency had previously given Congress.

Asked why it moved up the notice, the agency said the release “reflects the agency’s response to executive orders that prioritize the development and secure supply of critical minerals.” The agency apologized for the delay in responding to the Post but did not elaborate further on the shift in timing.

On environmental review, the agency confirmed that the leasing stage only grants companies the right to hold a lease and conduct preliminary work such as bathymetric, geological and geophysical surveys, which it maintains carry no significant environmental impact. A full environmental impact statement, the agency said, will wait until “a lessee submits detailed plans with more precise details regarding the location, equipment size, scale, and specific methodologies for developing the seabed resources.”

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Guam shut out as CNMI seabed mining sale advances in ‘race to the bottom,’ governor’s office says

August 24, 2026 — Guam’s exclusion from the formal comment process on a proposed seabed mining lease sale near the Northern Mariana Islands, paired with pointed new criticism from Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s administration, is adding fresh tension to a federal push that critics say is moving faster than anyone can properly weigh the risks.

The Marine Minerals Administration published a proposed leasing notice Monday covering five lease blocks along the edge of the Mariana Trench. Under the notice, only the CNMI governor holds a formal right to submit comments before a final leasing notice can be issued. Guam’s governor has no such standing, even though the waters sit next to the island.

CNMI Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds said she does not understand the restriction. “I don’t know, and I’m not sure why she would not be since these waters are adjacent to Guam as well,” King-Hinds said in an interview with The Guam Daily Post on Wednesday.

Leon Guerrero’s administration had already raised concerns after the notice came out this week. In a follow-up email Thursday responding to additional Post questions, the administration went further, faulting federal regulators for moving without adequate study.

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Opinion: Seabed mining would strip mine fishermens’ future

August 24, 2026 — As a family of lifelong commercial fishers, we’ve always done our best to take care of the ocean off Virginia’s coast. But right now, an out-of-state company wants to dig out the foundation of our fishing grounds.

The federal government is considering a recent proposal by a Florida-based mining company to dredge Virginia’s seabed. If granted, our entire Eastern shore – 2,500 square miles – could be opened up to mining that would tear up the ocean bottom and crush the marine life that depends on it.

The two of us have saltwater running through our veins.

As for me – Jim – I fell in the water when I was two and have been driving a skiff since I was eight. My great uncle was a crabber, and my great aunt was picking crabs. I always knew I wanted to be a commercial fisherman here – just fell in love with fishing.

And as for me – Katie – my neighbor in Freeport, Long Island, threw me in the water and told me to swim when I was three. At about nine, I’d take the neighbors’ dog out on a paddle boat at six am to grab mussels off the pylons and stay out until dark. Neighbors would tell my parents they’d seen me.

Today, we are Virginia’s largest harvesters of black sea bass and flounder, fishing over 100 trips per season. Jim, the tech whiz with a chemistry degree, recently designed and built our own boat and fishes all day with our 24-year-old son, Matt. Katie takes care of lobsters in the tank and delivers our product every Saturday to people’s houses. Around Chincoteague, some people know us better as “Jimmy Neutron” and “The Lobsta Lady.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Governor, Moylan push back on seabed mining plan

August 21, 2026 — The federal government has taken its clearest step yet toward opening the seabed near the Northern Mariana Islands to commercial mineral mining, and Guam’s governor and delegate to Congress are warning Washington not to move faster than the science allows.

The Marine Minerals Administration, formed in July when the Interior Department folded the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management into a new agency, published a proposed leasing notice Monday covering five lease blocks along the edge of the Mariana Trench. The blocks span roughly 67 million acres, an area close to the size of Nevada, and the agency has set Dec. 16 as the proposed date for the sale.

In a statement released Wednesday, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s office acknowledged Washington’s interest in reducing reliance on foreign mineral sources but said caution should come first. “National security cannot mean asking the people of the Pacific to accept environmental risks before those risks are fully understood,” the statement said.

The governor’s office cautioned that permitting exploration now could make it harder to pull back later, once companies have invested money in surveying the seabed. “A lease is not authorization to begin commercial mining, and it is important that we be precise about that. But it is also not an insignificant step,” the statement said, calling on the Interior Department and the new marine minerals agency to consult with residents of the Mariana Islands before going further.

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Nonprofit sues over U.S. push to auction areas of water around American Samoa for potential mining

August 20, 2026 — A legal environmental group sued the U.S. government on Tuesday to halt the Trump administration’s plans announced last month to auction off sections of water surrounding American Samoa for potential deep-sea mining.

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on behalf of two groups: Fa‘asao Amerika Samoa and Conservation Council for Hawai‘i.

The legal nonprofit is requesting that a judge order the National Marine Fisheries Service to stop moving forward with its plans and to comply with the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws.

“The United States has never opened its waters to deep-sea mining. Until now,” the lawsuit stated.

It noted that the U.S. plans to sell leases with the intention of allowing mining across 33 million acres of seabed off American Samoa that is rich in minerals including nickel, cobalt and manganese that are used to build batteries, electronics and other products.

Read the full article at NBC News

ALASKA: Deep sea mining in the Gulf of Alaska

August 13, 2026 — With China reportedly producing around 90 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth elements, and far ahead in processing technology, the U.S. and other countries are searching for new ways to meet demand, and deep sea mining on seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska is on the list of proposals. The Japanese press reported in July that experimental deep sea mining had successfully extracted rare earth elements such as neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium—all vital for fighter jet and missile guidance systems—from 6,000 feet below the surface.

In April of 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14285 “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources,” and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is evaluating whether to advance a competitive lease sale for minerals on the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf. “We don’t know what impact deep sea mining could have on fisheries, but there is cause for concern,” says retired University of Alaska marine professor Rick Steiner, who now runs a consulting company called Oasis Earth.

Read the full article at National Fisherman