‘Out of sight, out of mind’ runs the English saying which finds counterparts in many other languages. The same saying could not be more apt to describe the current lukewarm degree of interest shown by the international community in response to the greatest environmental heist that has ever been perpetrated on this planet.
Seabed mining, long perceived as a white elephant, is rearing its head in earnest, with proponents becoming bolder by the week. The environmental impacts of this commercial activity promise to far outstrip those from any other human activity we have experienced to date.
Some context first. The deep sea is well and truly the last frontier on this planet. Poorly explored and poorly understood, the deep sea is massive. It is estimated that three-quarters of the world’s ocean area is deeper than 1,000 metres, with this figure being equivalent to an area greater than half our planet. To compound matters even further, a substantial slice of this extent lies beyond the jurisdiction of any country, within international waters, the so-called ‘high seas’.
Despite being dark and cold, the deep sea holds untapped treasures which man is eager to exploit. The novel biodiversity found at these depths is the subject of bioprospecting and a rat race to patent active ingredients extracted from deep-sea organisms and applied to a mesmerising array of medical applications, from cancer treatment to immune system stimulation, the control of blood cholesterol and the treatment of inflammation.
However, the real bone of contention is not the living components of the deep sea but rather the non-living, mineral components, the so-called ‘polymetallic nodules’, imbibed with high concentrations of cobalt, copper, nickel and other precious metals that the world is so hungry for and which have formed over millions of years.
These potato-sized nodules are widespread on the deep seafloor but concentrations worth harvesting commercially are mainly restricted to depths of 4,000 to 6,000 metres in the Pacific Ocean, with the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), spanning over a staggering 4.5 million square kilometres between Hawaii and Mexico, being especially rich in such nodules.
Cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements (REEs), in fact, are all essential for producing electric vehicles and batteries, harnessing solar power and wind energy and other actions to reduce the reliance of consumers and industries on fossil fuels and to implement the Green Transition this planet so direly needs.
The supply of these critical minerals is vulnerable for various reasons. One is that production and processing of these minerals take place in a small number of countries, including some that have unstable political environments, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where roughly half the global supplies of cobalt are concentrated.
In order to legislate against the unfettered exploitation of seabed resources, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is mandated under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to organise, regulate and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area for the benefit of mankind as a whole.
While the deleterious environmental impacts of mining activities on land are well known, those arising from seabed mining activities are still shrouded in veils of uncertainty, despite considerable scientific work being conducted, for instance in areas of the Atlantic Ocean, to seek to predict the same impacts.
Deep seabed mining is being labelled as a climate hazard- Alan Deidun
The main environmental impact expected to arise from seabed mining consists of plumes of very fine sediment, the so-called ‘turbidity plume’, which will invariably be churned up once the automated excavation device disturbs the previously undisturbed seabed. This plume of sediment, potentially laced with contaminants that had settled within the seabed and which will be re-mobilised to new areas, is expected to remain suspended within the water column for a considerable period of time, given the very light nature of the sediment it contains and given the unagitated state of the waters at such great depths.
The same plume was shown in field and lab experiments to stifle the growth of benthic creatures and re-mobilise contaminants previously trapped within the deep sediment.
Yet another cause for concern is the sludge that will invariably have to be brought up to the surface before being de-watered and eventually disposed of.
Despite all these concerns, the ISA last September approved a plan by The Metals Company (TMC) to test its deep seabed mining equipment in the Pacific Ocean, besides signing a five-year extension to an existing exploration agreement with the Interoceanmetal Joint Organisation for the CCZ in the Pacific.
Predictably, these moves by the ISA have been perceived by the scientific community as too brash and as a nod to commercial contractors, such as the Canadian DeepGreen outfit. In an extraordinary display of DeepGreen’s influence, the Pacific island nation Nauru broke UN protocol in February 2019 by ceding its seat to the company’s chief executive, Gerard Barron, at a meeting of the International Seabed Authority council.
Given the inherent uncertainty surrounding the whole process, leaning on to the precautionary principle is sacrosanct, as recently advocated by Germany. Germany has, in fact, called for a pause in the controversial deep-sea mining industry, saying not enough is known about the likely impacts of digging up the ocean floor for metals.
While other nations, including Spain and New Zealand, have previously called for a temporary halt to any exploitation of deep-sea metals, Germany, the world’s fourth biggest economy, is the most significant nation to voice its opposition to date. The country holds two of the 31 licences for exploration of the seabed. Similarly, at the climate change COP27 meeting in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, President Emmanuel Macron declared that France supports the banning of any deep seabed mining and that it would defend this position in the international fora.
The chorus in favour of greater caution when it comes to seabed mining is such that deep seabed mining is being labelled as a climate hazard, with an ad hoc side event due to be organised on the margins of the COP27 meeting at the Chile pavilion on November 16.
The author is Malta’s Ocean Governance Ambassador and a marine biologist.