Treasures of the Deep
Deep sea mining could unlock untold wealth waiting at the bottom of the ocean, but will mining these riches come at an even greater price?
Scientifically known as Psychropotes longicauda, the gummy squirrel possess an unusual anatomy.
These gummy squirrels were found during a recent expedition into the Pacific Ocean by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at an astonishing depth of nearly 17,000 feet below sea level. However, scientists quickly realized these strange yellow sea creatures were actually crawling over a bed of treasure.
The Gummy Squirrels' Home
The gummy squirrels' deep sea home in the Pacific Ocean has a seafloor lined with precious minerals, including iron and nickel, a supply that could prove to be a priceless treasure if mined from the sea floor. Today, with new technology, companies are closer than ever to making the deep sea mining of these resources a reality.
The History of Deep Sea Mining
Surprisingly, the abundant supply of precious metals at the bottom of the ocean is not a new discovery; rather, it has been a topic of scientific research for over a century.
Scientists discovered the rare minerals lying on the seabed during the 1800s; however, the possibility of mining these resources was not considered until the late 1900s.
1872
The HMS Challenger embarks from England. The British ship, an old Navy vessel remodeled for scientific exploration, sails almost 80,000 miles around the globe, allowing the scientists on-board to conduct countless experiments and research.
1873
Only months after the HMS Challenger departs from England, "the dredge [hauls] up on its deck ‘several peculiar black oval bodies which were composed of almost pure manganese oxide.’" These strange black rocks, as scientists would later discover, were actually polymetallic nodules, rocks full of valuable minerals such as manganese, iron, and nickel.
1960s-1970s
Several companies, including businesses from the United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan, attempt to mine these metals from the ocean floor. However, falling metal prices quickly bring an end to the industry.
1982
The United Nations establishes the Convention on the Law of the Sea, bringing much of the deep sea under international control.
However, the true possibilities of deep sea mining were yet to be discovered.
The Future of Deep Sea Mining
With growing concerns over carbon emissions and climate change, interest in deep sea mining has peaked as scientists reimagine its possibilities.
Shifting to a greener energy source requires transferring power sources to electricity, requiring the production of millions of batteries to store electric power.
"Slashing humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels will require billions of kilograms of metal: a single wind turbine can contain more than a metric ton of copper, and electric car batteries demand heaps of cobalt, nickel and manganese.”- Daniel Ackerman, journalist for Scientific American
Unfortunately, creating these batteries comes with its own problems. Currently, "most of these metals now come from terrestrial mines—often at the cost of deforestation, water pollution and human rights abuses," creating a serious issue for advocates of greener energy.
However, scientists have recently been looking towards the deep sea, which could easily supply the necessary minerals.
To help manage these deep sea mining resources, the United Nations has formed the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Recently, the ISA granted specific permit sites to 22 public and private companies to mine the deep sea bed. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), mining operations will begin sometime around 2025 .
Overall, the ISA has granted 31 mining permits to 22 contractors to mine the deep sea, covering five main sites around the globe.
East Pacific Ocean
East Pacific Ocean. Click to expand.
17 Mining Permits
North Atlantic Ocean
North Atlantic Ocean. Click to expand.
3 permits
South Atlantic Ocean
South Atlantic Ocean. Click to expand.
1 Permit
Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean. Click to expand.
5 permits
West Pacific Ocean
West Pacific Ocean. Click to expand.
3 permits
East Pacific Ocean
17 Mining Permits
Located inside the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, this site, the home of the gummy squirrel, contains the most permits from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for deep sea mining. Its biological diversity has been specially recognized by the United Nations, which labeled this region as an "Ecologically or Biologically Significant Area."
North Atlantic Ocean
3 permits
This site is located inside a region of ocean nicknamed the Lost City due to its unusual carbon structures on its sea floor. The Lost City overlaps with the ranges of many endangered and critically endangered animals, such as the Hawksbill Sea Turtle, Green Sea Turtle, and Whale Shark. This site has been declared an "Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area" by the United Nations.
South Atlantic Ocean
1 Permit
This site off the coast of South America is located inside the Rio-Grande Rise. Some people claim this area is the Lost City of Atlantis ; however, this site could easily be destroyed by deep sea mining.
Indian Ocean
5 permits
Located inside the Mid-Indian Ridge, the Indian Ocean site neighbors a patch of ocean declared by the United Nations to be an "Ecologically and Biologically Significant Area," meaning the environmental impacts of deep sea mining could spread to this important site.
West Pacific Ocean
3 permits
This site is less than 700 miles from the Mariana Trench, the deepest sea trench in the world and a US National Monument . With strong ocean currents, sediment stirred up by deep sea mining could possibly travel to this important trench, smothering its unique animals.
The ISA's permits target three main types of mineral deposits:
Polymetallic Nodules
These deposits are the same type of rocks the HMS Challenger discovered. According to the ISA, polymetallic nodules contain manganese, iron, silicates, hydroxides, nickel, copper, cobalt, and rare earth elements. These deposits are the most common deposit targeted in the ISA mining permit areas.
Polymetallic Sulfides
These deposits are the second most common deposit targeted within the ISA permit areas. Polymetallic Sulfides contain copper, zinc, lead, iron, silver, and gold.
Cobalt Rich Ferromanganese Crusts
These deposits are the least common deposit targeted within the ISA permit areas. Cobalt-Rich Ferromanganese Crusts contain cobalt, platinum, nickel, manganese, and rare earth elements.
The Direct Impacts of Deep Sea Mining
Many scientists fear the direct impacts of deep sea mining will be devastating, having the potential to completely destroy entire ecosystems at the bottom of the sea.
Mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone
The largest cluster of ISA mining permits is located in the North Pacific Ocean, near the United States. This site, lying in between Mexico and Hawaii, is located in a stretch of ocean known as the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ).
Permit Sites in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone
Inside the CCZ, the International Seabed Authority has issued 17 total permits to mine for Polymetallic Nodules.
The interactive map on the right outlines the locations of these sites, the companies owning these sites, the countries sponsoring these sites, and the size of these sites.
(Note: location of mining contracts is approximate. Please see https://www.isa.org.jm/exploration-contracts for the exact locations of mining permits.)
However, the CCZ is not just a random patch of seabed in the Pacific; rather it is packed full of life. Recently, researchers at the University of Honolulu "were surprised to collect more than 1,000 animal species, which they estimate is less than half the total number living there " in the CCZ.
“We expect that there are thousands of species that are unique to the CCZ... I’ve been studying biodiversity there for decades, but we still don’t know that much.”-biologist Craig Smith, researcher at the University of Honolulu
In 2018, a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted research on the Clarion-Clipperton Zone , and the species they discovered while exploring the deep sea bed are astonishing.
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Biological Diversity in the CCZ
Because of its biological significance, the Convention on Biological Diversity, a part of the United Nations Environment Programme, designated part of the CCZ as an "Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area" (EBSA).
(For a more detailed description of the EBSA, please see the map on the right.)
Overlap Between Permit Sites and EBSA
However, this Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area overlaps many of the deep sea mining permits issued by the ISA, meaning that deep sea mining will have a direct impact on the species living in this zone.
When deep sea mining operations begin, large mining machines will rake the ocean floor to sift minerals from the sediment. However, during this mining process, wide expanses of ocean habitat will be destroyed. According to a nature.com article about deep sea mining , in the 1980s, a German biologist conducted tests on the seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone to imitate the effects of deep sea mining. His experiment, known as DISCOL, has revealed startling evidence about the impacts of deep sea mining.
Over 30 years after the DISCOL experiment, "scientists have returned to the site four times, most recently in 2015. The site has never recovered. In the ploughed areas, which remain as visible today as they were 30 years ago, there's been little return of characteristic animals such as sponges, soft corals, and sea anenomes," proving the destruction of habitat by deep sea mining could last decades.
Due to the habitat destruction caused by deep sea mining, many scientists believe that deep sea mining will lead to the extinction of multiple species.
"We understand that global extinction is serious harm... Scientists know that mining will cause local extinction of species in the CCZ, but are we talking about the extinction of species across the CCZ or just in the mined area? It is complicated..."- ecologist Gordon Paterson, member of the International Seabed Authority Legal and Technical Commission
The Indirect Impacts of Deep Sea Mining
Perhaps more concerning than the direct impacts of deep sea mining are the indirect effects of deep sea mining, which could affect organisms hundreds of miles from the permit sites.
Mining the deep sea will involve a three-step process.
During deep sea mining, the mining machine and the ship will release sediment directly into the water column, polluting the water with a flood of sediment.
“Based on predicted discharge rates, a single mining ship will release between two million and 3.5 million cubic feet of effluent every day, enough to fill a fleet of tanker trucks 15 miles long. Now imagine this process running continuously for 30 years — the lifetime of a mining lease.”- Dr. Steven H.D. Haddock and Dr. C. Anela Choy
For many deep sea animals living around the mining areas, they could literally be drowning in a sea of sediment.
“We’re only starting to see how far the plume reaches and we’re still very far from knowing what the effect will be.” -Henko Di Stigter, scientist at Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research in Texel
Mining in the Lost City
In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is a collection of hydrothermal vents known as the "Lost City," a metropolis of ghostly carbon towers.
Carbon deposits built up overtime create the massive organics structures abundant in the "Lost City." (Photo courtesy of the National Science Foundation .)
Permit Sites in the Lost City
The Lost City is also rich in precious metals, and the ISA has granted three mining permits in the region.
For more details about these permit sites, see the interactive map on the right.
(Note: location of mining contracts is approximate. Please see https://www.isa.org.jm/exploration-contracts for the exact locations of mining permits.)
Biological Diversity in the Lost City
However, the Lost City is part of a larger range of hydrothermal vents, whose richness in biodiversity have won them the title of EBSA.
(For a more detailed description of the EBSA, please see the map on the right.)
When contemplating how far sediment plumes will travel in the Lost City, scientists have varying opinions.
"The severity and spatial scales of plumes remains a controversial issue, with environmentalists fearing plumes could travel hundreds of kilometres and mining companies anticipating the impact to extend no further than 10 km from the mining site."- International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Sediment Plumes in the Lost City: 62 Miles
The International Seabed Authority claims sediment plumes will travel no farther than 62 miles from the permit site.
Sediment Plumes in the Lost City: Hundreds of Miles
However, many scientists claim the ISA's estimate is much too low, and instead predict that strong ocean currents could carry the sediment hundreds or possibly thousands of miles, impacting countless numbers of sea creatures.
However, even the International Seabed Authority's conservative estimate of 62 miles will overlap with the territory of multiple animals the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List has classified as endangered, including...
The Hawksbill Sea Turtle
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, the Hawksbill sea turtle, whose range encompasses both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, has experienced declining populations do to human activities, earning it the title of critically endangered, only one tier higher than extinct.
The Whale Shark
This spotted plankton eater, which can be found in oceans around the world, has been identified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as endangered due to a declining population.
The Green Sea Turtle
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, this turtle is sensitive to habitat contamination and human activities. These facts coupled with declining populations qualify the green sea turtle as endangered.
Seven Other Endangered Species
These seven other endangered species, all whose populations are reported as declining by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, may be impacted by deep sea mining in the Lost City.
Declining Populations
After having tanker trucks full of sediment dumped into their habitat, the survival of these already endangered animals from the Lost City may be severely compromised.
Looking Ahead: The True Treasure of the Deep
After further exploration, the greatest treasure of the deep may not be mineral deposits.
While accessing the minerals lying at the bottom of the deep sea could be a valuable break-through for green energy, it could cause equal damage to a marine environment rich with priceless animals.
Scientists know deep sea mining, whether directly or indirectly, will result in some level of extinction in marine populations. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has even declared one animal, the scaly-foot snail, Chrysomallon squamiferum , endangered solely because of the threats of deep sea mining in its habitat.
As we pursue greener energy sources with deep sea mining, we need to make the effort to ensure we are not destroying the organisms and ecosystems that call the deep sea mining beds home. Through preservation, we can discover and fully appreciate the true treasures hiding in the lives of these amazing animals.
Who knows? We may even unlock more of the secrets of the elusive gummy squirrel.
Further Resources
For more information concerning deep sea mining, please visit The International Seabed Authority's website.
- The International Seabed Authority: https://www.isa.org.jm/
For more information concerning the steps advocates are taking to preserve animals targeted by deep sea mining, please see The International Union for the Conversation of Nature's website.
- The International Union for the Conservation of Nature: https://www.iucn.org/
