Given the prevailing business model it will never be possible to conserve and sustainably extract resources from the ocean floor. The catastrophes that will be created in the deep sea will be out of sight out of mind.
An organisation with glaring conflict of interest
An inter-governmental organisation was founded on 16th November 1994 known as International Seabed Authority (ISA). It consists of 167 countries and the European Union as its members and is headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica. It is mandated under the UN’s Convention on law of the Sea. Its role is to regulate and control all mineral exploration related activities beyond the national jurisdiction in the international seabed areas ‘for the benefit of mankind as a whole’. Sounds majestic!
There are two serious issues. The ISA has a status of an autonomous organisation and the UN has no oversight role. Secondly, ISA is the authority which issues environmental impact studies for all proposed explorations submitted by public and private companies. But it is also the sole authority to issue the licences for seabed exploration. It is a direct conflict of interest. How will it work, if at all it works?
About 65 per cent of the Earth surface is covered by ocean with a depth of more than 200 metres with the deepest being 11.03 km. The average depth of the ocean is 3.68 km. The life that exists in such depth is practically unknown. The studies conducted by Oceanographers and marine biologists are still at an infancy stage for us to understand ocean ecosystem in deep seas. Based on available information scientists believe that the ecosystem in deep seas is as diverse as it is on the terrestrial earth.
The ocean floor has huge deposits of diamonds, zinc, manganese, cobalt, nickel, silver, and many other rare minerals. ISA has issued 31 licences to 22 contractors for exploration of polymetallic nodules in deep seas for a period of 15 years in the international waters in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans that will cover almost 2 million sq. km. of ocean floor to be explored outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
False premise
The ISA says that it is committed to contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 2030 by ‘conserving’ and ‘sustainably’ using ocean and marine resources. It will do so by implementing economic, environmental and social mandates assigned to it under the UN Convention on Law of the Sea. English is my third language so I am unable to understand the meaning of ‘conserving’ and ‘sustainably’ in the way it is implied here.
The Secretary General of the ISA argues that deep sea mining does not destroys villages, alters flow of rivers, pollute waters, and there is no labour exploitation including child labour, so it is much safer than mining works on the land! But ISA conveniently forgot to mention about the chemical waste it will generate and huge damage it will cause on the ocean floor including wiping of marine life.
We are surrounded by millions of tons of garbage in the land and sea and we continue to add carbon particles in the atmosphere every day. We are destroying forests on an unprecedented scale. We see these catastrophes visibly but are unable to mitigate and produce any remedial actions. How will we conserve and sustainably extract resources from the bottom of the earth? The catastrophes in the deep sea will be out of sight out of mind.
Pie in the sky
There is another interesting proposal here. The ISA will also address the needs of developing countries and landlocked countries and shall provide technical knowhow for deep sea exploration to benefit from deep-sea mining operation, a noble idea indeed! The situation in mine rich countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Papua New Guinea, etc. tells us that these countries are unable to take benefits from what is available within their terrestrial land as all these mines are under the control of multinationals whose interest is to serve the shareholders not the people of the countries where such mines are extracted. How can these countries expect to benefit from deep-sea mining? It sounds like wicked humour.
Against the majority wish
A number of environmental groups such as World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have been objecting to the idea of deep sea mining for decades. In April 2021 they were joined by large international companies such as BMW, Volvo, Samsung and Google calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining.
On 8th Sept 2021 IUCN, with a membership of 216 countries and territories held its World Conservation Congress to push for a moratorium on deep sea mining and reform of the ISA. Eighty-one favoured a moratorium, 28 abstained (including Canada, Australia, France, UK and USA, among others) and 18 voted against (including Belgium and Norway). The motion was also voted in favour by 577 NGOs and other civil society organisations participating in the congress. The moratorium was also backed by a statement signed by 622 scientists, marine biologists and policy experts from 44 countries. Their statement says ‘deep-sea mining would add to the stressors, resulting in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that would be irreversible on multi-generational timescales’.
Ironically on the same day, the European Commission published its Strategic Foresight Report announcing plans to step up deep-sea mining operations. It is in sharp contrast to the EU's own Biodiversity Strategy commitments which calls on the EU Parliament for a moratorium on deep sea mining, issued on the World Ocean Day on 8 June 2021!
Race already started
While the discussions on deep-sea mining continue, several countries and private companies have already developed industrial scale mechanical diggers and ‘nodule collectors’ and have deployed them within their EEZ. De Beers for example extracted 1.4 million carats of diamond in the west coast of Namibian waters. Every country of course has their rights for exploration of the ocean floor within their EEZ, such as for oil and gas reserves, which has been ongoing for decades. But deep-sea mining, which digs and sweeps the ocean floors, may have broader negative impacts on the marine fauna and flora in deep seas.
There are a small number of scientists, whose studies are possibly sponsored by mining companies, disagree with the idea of a moratorium. Their view is that deep sea mining can provide raw materials for zero-carbon society. They also claim that if the deep sea mining strips 200 sq. km. of sea bed, the sediment plumes could spread over 20,000 sq. km., which is just 0.006 percent of ocean floor.
Will a prayer work?
In our quest for development and profit, industries pour millions of gallons of industrial waste into the sea and millions of tonnes of solid wastes are dumped into the landfills every week. Recycling is not able to make any dent because of the complexity and cost of recycling. Harmful chemicals from all these waste seeps into agricultural land and underground fresh water reserves. We have managed to wipe out thousands of species of plants and animals with pollution and continue to annihilate forests. These are happening on the surface of the Earth, in front of our eyes. What will happen in the deep sea where we cannot see and have no knowledge of the situations and cannot take any mitigating action to prevent damages and remedial actions once the damage is done? No amount of prayer will work!
Interesting topic. It's a very difficult situation. and as you fear there is little that can stop the mining. Would some UN decision help?
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