Meet the marine biologist trying to prevent the exploitation of the deep sea

The oceans need more care than before – and few people assume this work with more commitment than Diva Amon. Marine biologist at Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory of the University of California in Santa Barbara, (Marc and Lynne Benioff are the owners and co -chairs of time), Amon has a special love for deeper ocean trends – sea level, where sunlight does not penetrate, pressures are up to 110 times that of sea level, and temperatures fall to 39 ° F. Despite these punishing conditions, all kinds of life forms thrive. One of the greatest potential dangers for this fragile ecosystem is the deep mining of the ocean – industrialization of the oceanic intact and invisible to extract nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, gold, silver and more. For the moment, the mining operations do not take place – and Amon and his colleagues recommend and mobilize to help keep it so. Amon spoke to Time in a great conversation which was published by brevity and clarity.

Time: there is a lot of wealth to have ocean soil. What is the current state of mining?

AMON: Mining in international waters is governed by the international seabed authority, an autonomous United Nations. They only granted exploration licenses over the past 20 years in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indians. Until now, more than 30 licenses have been granted. Most of them cover areas about 75,000 kilometers [46,602 miles]Or the size of Sri Lanka, so it is not without consequences. In addition, Norway, Japan, the Cook Islands and New Guinea of ​​Papua are considering deep exploitation in their own waters.

Find out more: Fishermen’s communities in the Philippines are fighting for their future as waters increase

What are the countries and companies studying in these exploration activities?

They are looking for three types of resources. First, there are polymetallic nodules, which are a kind of metallic bump, the size of the cherries to the size of a potato. They form in a way similar to a pearl, increasing around a small particle like a shark tooth, a shell or a piece of sediment. The rate they form is a few millimeters per million years. They also look for polymetallic sulfides, found in hydrothermal vents, which are one of the most remarkable and emblematic high seas ecosystems. Finally, they are looking for ferromanganese crusts rich in cobalt, which are a layer that forms on [underwater mountains]. The crusts can be millimeters several feet thick.

You mention the ecosystems. To what extent is life robust in these three areas of resources?

The targeted minerals form a critical part of the seabed, and the seabed is what life is attached to the deep ocean. Things like coral, anemones and mushrooms are attached to the deep bottom. In the case of nodules, they use them as anchor or as shelter. They are really the cornerstone of the ecosystem.

What other types of organizations live in these areas?

We do not know fully. There are great gaps in our knowledge. There was a study which was released in 2023 which revealed that in the Clarion Clipperton zone [which extends from Hawaii to Mexico]88% to 92% of the multicellular species that live there have not been described by science. We are not talking about one or two forms of life. We are talking about thousands of people.

What are the size of the areas that would be affected by mining?

The spatial scales of this are enormous. Just in the Clarion Clipperton zone, the projections of the industry are that they plan to operate 500,000 square kilometers [more than 193,000 square miles]. And due to the three -dimensional nature of the ocean, the concern is that the impact will extend both vertically over thousands of meters and horizontally, potentially triple the impact zone. There is a plume generated at the bottom of the sea from mining activity as a storm of dust which will spread far beyond the mining tract.

There is also a secondary panache. Everything that is extracted will be pumped on a pipe to a ship waiting on the surface. Minerals will be separated from water and sediments and metal particles. Then, these sediments, wastewater and dissolved particles and materials will be pumped into the ocean from the ship. There is currently no regulations to dictate the depth of the depth that waste is pumped into the ocean, whether on the surface or thousands of meters deep or returning directly to the seabed.

Could ecosystems recover from all this?

Life in the deep sea is extremely slow. There is very little food, and that means that life moves slowly, develops slowly, reproduces slowly. And so it really doesn’t deal with the impact very well. It takes a lot of time to recover. With nodules, for example, we will not see the recovery of the ecosystem, except on a scale of millions of years. Essentially, it would be irreversible damage.

In the closer term, there are increases in noise and light of mining which have never been seen before in the deep sea. All this will lead to a loss of biodiversity. You also have contaminants released by the plumes that will make their way in the food chain. This could affect ecosystem services that we obtain from the deep sea, such as fisheries.

There is an argument according to which the exploitation of the sea in depth actually presents certain environmental advantages because it replaces the mining on the surface. Is there something?

There is no evidence that deep mining would prevent terrestrial extraction. It is likely that the two will occur, causing a double destruction, rather than one taking the place of the other. Something else that is often ignored is that we know that the ocean plays an essential role in regulating the climate; It is there that a majority of heat is absorbed, this is where a huge amount of carbon is kidnapped. The ocean is one of our greatest allies in the fight against the climate crisis. Dandier to use the exploitation of the elder in depth to resolve the climate crisis is like smoking to reduce your stress.