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The deep sea is home to habitats and species found nowhere else on Earth, and provides essential environmental services.
Despite its importance, its vast size and challenging conditions mean there is much left to be studied and understood.
Starting at roughly 200 meters and stretching to 6,000 meters deep, the deep sea is dark, cold, under intense pressure and food-scarce.
The life that thrives here has adapted over millions of years and has been largely free from human impacts. Research tells us deep sea species and habitats are highly sensitive to disturbance and slow to recover.
There is widespread concern in the scientific community that a proposed new extractive industry -- deep seabed mining (DSM) -- would have an irreversible impact on delicately balanced deep ocean ecosystems.
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative has warned of significant reputational, regulatory, and operational risks associated with plans to mine the deep seabed.
We need to think deeply and protect one of our planet's last untouched places before irreparable damage is done.
Take a deep dive to learn why seabed mining is an environmental catastrophe can, and must, stop before it starts.
The long-term value of a healthy ocean far outweighs the short-term profits offered by deep seabed mining. Opening up this new frontier for extraction would destabilize delicate ocean ecosystems and fatally undermine the foundations of a circular ocean economy.
Growing demand for metals and minerals doesn’t have to cost the Earth. Alternative solutions already exist – a combination of innovation, recycling and repair can satisfy industries’ need for raw materials without opening the seafloor to mining. The journey to a more sustainable future begins with a simple decision: No deep seabed mining.
A global moratorium on all deep seabed mining activities is urgently needed. Extraction must not go ahead until the environmental, social and economic risks are understood, and all alternatives to deep sea minerals have been explored. Without this knowledge base, we cannot possibly design adequate safeguards to protect the marine environment and human well-being.
Calls for a moratorium are increasing, with local and international NGOs, community leaders, scientists, governments and fishers’ organizations leading the way. WWF is proud to take this stand for our ocean alongside a global coalition of individuals, businesses and governments. It is now a question of what reaches the ocean floor first: protection in the form of a global moratorium, or the deep-sea bulldozers of DSM.
WWF is working across sectors to propose solutions:
» Businesses can source their materials through more conventional, less destructive means of extraction, and invest in innovation, recycling and repairability.
» Consumers can recycle their old phones, reduce consumption and investigate where their materials come from.
» Governments can support a global moratorium on deep seabed mining and invest in the circular economy.
Plumes of wastewater, sediment and residual metals discharged from ships during mining could flow hundreds of kilometers away from the mining sites. These plumes could impact ocean ecosystems at various depths. The metals they contain could prove toxic to some forms of marine life and could, potentially, get into the marine food chain.
Noise and light pollution could seriously disrupt species, such as whales and other deep-diving or deep-dwelling animals, that use noise, echolocation or bioluminescence to communicate, find prey and/or escape predators.
Scientists believe deep sea ecosystems may be as diverse as the world’s richest tropical rainforests. Discoveries about life here are providing new routes for medicine and clues about the beginnings of life on Earth. The test being used to diagnose COVID-19 was developed using an enzyme isolated from a microbe found in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
The ocean is worth more than just the value of its finite resources. The intrinsic long-term benefits of a healthy ocean far outweigh any short-term incentives offered by deep seabed mining. Opening up this new frontier for extraction would destabilize delicate ocean ecosystems and fatally undermine the foundations of a circular ocean economy.