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

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

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

VIRGINIA: Coastal Virginia communities push back against proposed offshore seabed mining

August 12, 2026 — Chincoteague resident Jim Dawson has been fishing the waters off the Eastern Shore for more than four decades, catching species including black sea bass and Atlantic lobster.

During his many hours out at sea, Dawson said he’s come to appreciate the tiniest creatures that dwell on and around the seafloor.

“The microscopic world is just phenomenal, that you would never know is there,” he said. “What lives in that water, we don’t know anything about. And everything is vital.”

Dawson worries a new federal proposal to dig up huge portions of the seabed could threaten the ecosystem that supports his livelihood.

“Once you knock one thing off balance, it really impacts all of it,” he said.

The Trump administration announced in June that it is considering issuing an ocean lease to allow mineral mining within a 2,700-square-mile area flanking the Eastern Shore, stretching from 3 to 63 miles off the coast.

The move was prompted by an unsolicited request from a Florida company late last year.

Administration officials say the industry, which mines the seabed to extract valuable minerals, could reduce U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers.

But many community leaders and residents along the Virginia coast are strongly opposing the proposal, particularly on the Shore.

The counties of Accomack and Northampton sent the government formal notices against it.

Read the full article at WHRO

Gulf lawmakers aim to extend state borders to 9 miles offshore

July 15, 2026 — A bipartisan coalition of Gulf Coast lawmakers is pushing to change a 73-year-old law that limits their states’ maritime boundaries to 3 miles offshore, potentially reshaping the regulation of local fisheries and generating billions of dollars in tax revenues from offshore energy and minerals leases.

Introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Miss., and a group of legislators that includes Reps. Troy Carter Sr., D-La., Clay Higgins, R-La., and Shomari Figures, D-Ala., the Offshore Parity Act would extend state waters from 3 nautical miles out to 9 – matching the long-held boundaries of Texas and Florida.

Read the full article at The Center Square

Dems request probe of offshore agency reorganization

July 9, 2026 — Top Democrats on Wednesday called on Congress’ watchdog to investigate the Trump administration’s decision to merge two existing bureaus within the Interior Department to oversee offshore oil and gas, wind and mining.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and House Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether a consolidation could undermine beefed up oversight created after the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil disaster in 2010.

The letter — also signed by California Democrats Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Luz Rivas — zeroes in on the administration’s decision in April to consolidate the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to create a new Marine Minerals Administration.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Feds mull first-ever seafloor mining in Alaskan waters

January 29, 2026 — The Trump administration is considering allowing deep-sea mining in the waters off the coast of Alaska, sparking concerns about the fate of world class fisheries and fragile ecosystems.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy and Management, or BOEM, will begin gauging interest in a competitive mineral lease sale on Alaska’s outer continental shelf when a notice is published in the Federal Register on Thursday. The agency, according to a map posted online, is looking at large swaths of the Bering Sea, including the Aleutian Islands.

BOEM’s acting Director Matt Giacona said in a statement that Alaska’s offshore “holds strategic potential for the minerals that drive American industry, defense and next-generation technologies,” and that the request for information is “a practical first step to gauge interest and identify areas where development could make sense for jobs, investment and national supply chains.”

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: U.S. Interior Department agency solicits interest in seafloor mining off Alaska

January 28, 2026 — The Trump administration is floating the idea of mining the seafloor off Alaska’s coast.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Tuesday it will soon release a formal “call for information” about possible sales of leases for minerals mining in federal waters off Alaska. The call for information will kick off a 30-day public comment period allowing industry to express interest in such a lease sale.

“Alaska’s offshore holds strategic potential for the minerals that drive American industry, defense and next-generation technologies,” Matt Giacona, BOEM’s acting director, said in a statement. “This Request for Information is a practical first step to gauge interest and identify areas where development could make sense for jobs, investment and national supply chains.”

The push for offshore minerals mining “supports the Trump Administration’s focus on strengthening domestic supply chains and advancing American energy and resource leadership,” the BOEM statement said.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon