Where Are They Seeking to Mine First? Much of the Deep Ocean Floor Is Composed of Vast, Flat, Sediment- Covered Areas Called Abyssal Plains

Deep-sea mining: fact sheet 4 Deep-sea mining: where are they seeking to mine first? Much of the deep ocean floor is composed of vast, flat, sediment- covered areas called abyssal plains. Extensive deposits of manganese or polymetallic nodules have been found on the abyssal plains of the Eastern Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii.

The nodules are of commercial interest The ISA has already granted 16 contracts to because they contain cobalt, copper, nickel and explore for metals across more than a million manganese, which have precipitated around square kilometers of the CCZ. Some of the fish bones, teeth and other small objects over contractors want to start mining the nodules. millions of years. These metals are in demand (See map 'Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone' on to build batteries, electronic equipment and page 2.) renewable energy technologies. The largest deposits of nodules found to Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone date lie at depths of four to six kilometers in Research expeditions have continuously an area called the Clarion Clipperton Fracture identified new species in this area, leading marine Zone (CCZ), in the eastern Pacific Ocean scientists to speculate that the vast majority of Below:octopod hanging between Mexico and Hawaii. This is the area life there has yet to be discovered. They believe underneath her brood of of the seabed where the International Seabed that the CCZ may be one of the most biologically 30 eggs, 2–2.7cm-long, Authority (ISA), which regulates deep-sea diverse areas of deep sea on the planet. each individually attached mining in all marine areas outside national Major research projects, such as the JPI to the sponge stalk. Peru jurisdiction, seeks to hand out its first contracts Oceans project ‘MiningImpact1’ and the Basin (4,150 meters). for commercial mining. MIDAS Project, funded by the European Union, © OFOS-Launcher Team (AWI), RV SONNE 2016 (AWI), © OFOS-Launcher Team

Fact sheet 4 | Deep-sea mining: where are they seeking to mine first? | JUNE 2020 1 whereDeep-sea mining: factare sheet 4 they seeking to mine first? discovered not only a high diversity of life in While some species may begin to repopulate the CCZ, but also that groups of very different areas of the seabed that have been subject to species live within just a few kilometers of each very limited disturbance, scientists estimate that other.1 This suggests that many species are the nodules, and the animals that depend on endemic to the CCZ or areas within it. Over half them, may take “millions of years to recover”. of the larger species discovered were found to Even a partial recovery of the animals in the depend on the nodules for their survival. Some, surrounding sediment “may take hundreds to such as deep-sea corals and sponges, live on thousands of years”.4 the nodules. Others, such as the female Casper octopus, depend on species that live on the Causes for concern nodules.2 Should the nodules be removed, it is A significant cause for concern is the size of Below: map shows areas unlikely that the animals that depend on them the areas that would be impacted by nodule within the The Clarion- would survive, or that their habitats would recover. mining. A single mining operation is expected Clipperton Zone under to effectively strip mine some eight to nine current exploration Biodiversity and deep-sea mining thousand square kilometers of seabed over the contracts,Exploring reserved for the Clarion-ClippertonThe sheer scale of the planned Zone deep-sea mining course of a 25-30 year mining contract.5 future exploration, and set operations in the CCZ has led many scientists Another concern is sediment disruption. asideThe forClarion-Clipperton protection of the Zoneto conclude is in high that demand.biodiversity This loss mapwould shows be areasSediment under current that has exploration lain on the contracts, seabed for many areas reserved for future exploration, and areas set aside for protection of the marine environment. marine environment. unavoidable if mining were permitted to occur.3 thousands of years would be stirred up into the

Reserved for future exploration Under current exploration contracts Area of particular environmental interest (APEI)

950 mi

1500 km © The Pew Charitable Trust © The Pew

The ISA Environmental Many CCZ seamounts 2 Management Plan for Fact sheet 4 | Deep-sea mining: where are they seekinghave to peaks mine first? that | rise JUNE to 2020 the CCZ recognizes nine 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) subregions that differ in below the surface.* productivity, depth, and They are known for their biology. It established biodiversity, hosting deep- no-mining areas in each to water corals, sponges, protect a range of habitats and fish. and biodiversity.

Many creatures that In 2016, scientists inhabit the CCZ live more discovered a new species than 5,000 meters (3.1 of octopus 4,000 meters miles) beneath the ocean’s (2.5 miles) below the surface. These creatures sea. Dubbed the ghost have adapted in ways octopus and nicknamed that allow them to survive “Casper,” it lays its eggs on crushing pressure in a sponge stalks anchored to near-lightless environment. manganese nodules.†

Polymetallic nodules Scientists are continuously are found on the abyssal discovering new species in plains of all major oceans. the CCZ. By one estimate, The CCZ has the largest 90 percent of the species concentration of nodule that researchers collect are fields.‡ new to science.§

Xenophyophores are A 1978 experiment to single-celled creatures the recover nodules removed size of tennis balls, or larger, a layer of sediment 4.5 that live on the seafloor— centimeters thick and 1.5 often attached to nodules— meters wide from the CCZ and sediment to build area. Twenty-six years protective coverings.‖ later, the disturbance was still clearly visible.#

Sources * International Seabed Authority, Legal and Technical Commission, “Environmental Management Plan for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone” (July 13, 2011), https://www.isa.org.jm/sites/default/files/files/documents/isba-17ltc-7_0.pdf. † Ben Guarino, “Meet the Charming ‘Ghost Octopods’ Found Among Valuable Metallic Balls on the Deep Sea Floor,” The Washington Post, Dec. 20, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/20/meet-the-charming-ghost-octopods-found-living-among-valuable-metallic-balls- on-the-deep-sea-floor/?utm_term=.8b520c87ac10. ‡ T. Kuhn et al., “Chapter 2: Composition, Formation, and Occurrence of Polymetallic Nodules,” in Deep Sea Mining Resource Potential, Technical and Environmental Considerations, ed. Rahul Sharma (New York: Springer International Publishing, 2017), 52. § Managing Impacts of Deep Sea Resource Exploitation, “Biodiversity in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone,” http://eu-midas.net/sites/default/files/downloads/ Briefs/MIDAS_CCZ_biodiversity_brief_lowres.pdf. ‖ Diva J. Amon et al., “Insights Into the Abundance and Diversity of Abyssal Megafauna in a Polymetallic-Nodule Region in the Eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone,” Scientific Reports 6 (2016): 30492, https://www.nature.com/articles/srep30492. # Elaine Baker and Yannick Beaudoin, eds., “Deep Sea Minerals: Manganese Nodules, a Physical, Biological, Environmental, and Technical Review,” Secretariat of the Pacific Community (2013), 36, http://dsm.gsd.spc.int/public/files/meetings/TrainingWorkshop4/UNEP_vol1B.pdf; Dmitry M. Miljutin et al., “Deep- Sea Nematode Assemblage Has Not Recovered 26 Years After Experimental Mining of Polymetallic Nodules (Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, Tropical Eastern Pacific),” Deep Sea Research, Part I, Oceanographic Research Papers 58, no. 8 (2011): 885–97, http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00047/15867/13321.pdf.

© 2017 The Pew Charitable Trusts Ocean and species of whales, dolphins, turtles and sharks also migrate through the area. Noise pollution is a further cause for concern. The noise from the continuous pumping of the ore to the surface over many months and years could impact species – such as whales and other deep-diving or deep-dwelling animals that use noise and echolocation to communicate and find prey. Little research has been undertaken to understand the likely impact of noise that would be generated by nodule mining

Above: Casper octopods water column when the nodules are gathered Wider threats to ocean health live at depths of more than or sucked up for transport to the mining vessel Deep ocean ecosystems are already facing 4,000 meters in the deep at the ocean surface. Modelling conducted multiple environmental stressors from pollutants abyssal plain areas. under the MIDAS Project suggests that this and plastics, as well as climate change plume could blanket the seabed for tens of related impacts like acidification, warming, thousands of square kilometers beyond the deoxygenation and reduced supply of nutrients actual mining sites. from surface waters.9 At the same time, new These plumes could expose animals living species discovered by deep-sea expeditions, on or near the seabed to concentrations of including those in the CCZ, could provide sediment tens to hundreds of times higher than important ‘keystone’ functions or ecosystem they are adapted for.6 This sediment suspension services that we do not yet understand, could be particularly harmful to species that live and could even hold the key to medical or on the nodules such as deep-water corals and technological breakthroughs. sponges that feed by filtering organic material from the ocean water.7 There would also be additional sediment plumes generated from pumping out wastewater after nodules are brought aboard ships. Some companies are currently planning to pump the wastewater back into the ocean at depths of one or two kilometers beneath the surface, which equates to several thousand meters above the seafloor in the CCZ. This could lead to plumes of wastewater, sediment and residual ore flowing hundreds of kilometers away, impacting species at various depths. Increasing water cloudiness Right: Relicanthus sp. – could affect species that use bioluminescence a new species from a new to hunt or find mates. Residual metals and other order of Cnidaria collected compounds in the wastewater could prove toxic at 4,100 meters in the CCZ to some forms of marine life and potentially that lives on sponge stalks get into the marine food chain.8 There are

Fact sheet 4 | Deep-sea mining: where are they seeking to mine first? | JUNE 2020 3 where are they seeking to mine first? © Craig Smith and Diva Amon, ABYSSLINE Project. © Craig Smith and Diva Amon, ABYSSLINE

Above: Sea cucumber Recommendations Endnotes Amperima sp. on the The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition urges 1 Boetius, A. and Haeckel, M., 2018. Mind the seafloor. Science, 359(6371), seabed in the eastern States and the global community to support pp.34-36. 2 Vanreusel, A., Hilario, A., Ribeiro, P.A., Menot, L. and Arbizu, P.M., 2016. CCZ. calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. Threatened by mining, polymetallic nodules are required to preserve Currently, deep-sea mining in biologically abyssal epifauna. Scientific reports, 6, p.26808. rich areas such as the CCZ would knowingly 3 Niner, H.J., Ardron, J.A., Escobar, E.G., Gianni, M., Jaeckel, A., Jones, put valuable ecosystems at risk. Not only D.O., Levin, L.A., Smith, C.R., Thiele, T., Turner, P.J. and Van Dover, C.L., would it contravene international political and 2018. Deep-sea mining with no net loss of biodiversity—an impossible aim. Frontiers in Marine Science, 5, p.53. legal commitments to conserve and protect 4 Kaiser, S., Smith, C. and Martinez Arbizu, P., 2017. Editorial: Biodiversity of the marine environment. It would also run the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone, Marine Biodiversity, 47, 259–264. counter to efforts to reduce human pressure 5 International Seabed Authority. 2018. New developments in deep seabed on ecosystems, biodiversity and nature and to mining. Available at: https://www.isa.org.jm/files/documents/EN/SG-Stats/ DSM-Hmbg.pdf. [Accessed 23 June 2020]. rebalance society’s needs with our long-term 6 Natural rate of sedimentation in eastern CCZ: 0.2 cm – 1.15 cm survival on a healthy planet. per thousand years (equals 0.002 mm-0.0115mm per year). Volz, J.B., Mogollón, J.M., Geibert, W., Arbizu, P. M., Koschinsky, A. and Kasten, S., 2018. Natural spatial variability of depositional conditions, biogeochemical processes and element fluxes in sediments of the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Pacific Ocean. Deep Sea Research Part I: About the DSCC Oceanographic Research Papers, 140, pp.159-172. Modelling by the MIDAS Project of sediment deposition from mining in The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) was founded CCZ: > 1mm/yr up to 10 km from mining site (equivalent to 87-500 times in 2004 to address the need to prevent damage to deep-sea natural rate) and 0.1 mm/yr (8.7-50 times natural rate) up to 50 km from mining site. ecosystems and the depletion of deep-sea species on the MIDAS Consortium. 2016. Managing Impacts of Deep Sea Resource high seas from bottom trawling and other forms of deep-sea Exploitation Research Highlights. Available at: fishing. The DSCC is made up of over 80 non-governmental https://www.eu-midas.net/sites/default/files/downloads/MIDAS_research_ organizations (NGOs), fishers organizations and law and policy highlights_low_res.pdf. [Accessed 23 June 2020]. 7 Drazen, J., Smith, C., Gjerde, K., Au, W., Black, J., Carter, G., Clark, M., institutes, all committed to protecting the deep sea. Durden, J., Dutrieux, P., Goetze, E. and Haddock, S., 2019. Report of the workshop Evaluating the nature of midwater mining plumes and their For further information: potential effects on midwater ecosystems. Research Ideas and Outcomes, [email protected] 5, p.e33527. www.savethehighseas.org 8 Ibid. 9 Sweetman, A.K., Thurber, A.R., Smith, C.R., Levin, L.A., Mora, C., Wei, @DeepSeaConserve C.L., Gooday, A.J., Jones, D.O., Rex, M., Yasuhara, M. and Ingels, J., 2017. Major impacts of climate change on deep-sea benthic ecosystems. Elem Sci Anth, 5, p.4.

4 Fact sheet 4 | Deep-sea mining: where are they seeking to mine first? | JUNE 2020