International wildlife conservation charity Fauna & Flora has reported mounting evidence that deep seabed mining is risky. Expert findings suggest the negative impact could be “widespread and irreversible”.
Deep seabed mining is the proposed process of extracting mineral deposits from the deep seabed. Despite widespread concerns that deep-sea mining will severely damage marine biodiversity and ecosystems, the industry hopes to start deep-sea mining.
Such mining could meet growing demand for metals such as lithium, copper and nickel, and other depleted land-based resources.
Life
In early 2020, Fauna & Flora published “Risk and Impact Assessment of Seabed Mining on Marine Ecosystems‘ and raised concerns about threats to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and dependent planetary systems from deep seabed mining.
Since then, scientific attention to the issue has grown rapidly, with many new studies published on deep-sea environments, the functions and services they provide to humans, and the potential impacts of deep seabed mining on marine life.
Fauna & Flora has now reviewed the new evidence to publish an update to its initial assessment. The analysis covers many areas affecting the deep seabed mining debate, including the susceptibility of deep sea species and ecosystems to disturbances in the seafloor’s ability to recover from mining impacts.
The analysis also includes the role of the ocean in regulating climate, the societal implications of deep sea mining risks and impacts, and the extent to which expected impacts can be prevented, mitigated and managed.
diversity
The analysis shows that deep seabed mining will inevitably lead to the loss of deep sea biodiversity – with impacts on associated ecosystem functions and services – and that once lost, biodiversity cannot be recovered.
It also demonstrates compelling evidence that deep seabed mining could contribute to the climate crisis by disturbing carbon storage in marine sediments and disruption of carbon cycling and storage processes.
Crucially, the report highlights how little is known about the diversity and complexity that exists in the deep ocean, and the many new species yet to be discovered.
In the abstract of the report, Fauna & Flora concludes that deep seabed mining is premature and should be avoided entirely in the absence of any suitable and proven impact avoidance or mitigation technologies.
impossible
Sophie Benbow, Director of Oceans, Fauna and Flora, said: “We know less about the deep sea than anywhere else on Earth; more than 75% of the seafloor remains unmapped and less than 1% of the deep sea has been explored.
