Posted on 08 September 2021

Jessica Battle, leader of WWF’s No Deep Seabed Mining Initiative comments: “This is a welcome and clear signal that there is no social licence for opening up the deep ocean to a new extractive industry.

"A few companies and a handful of states are pushing for expedited opening of the deep seafloor to destructive mining – a move that would cause irreversible harm to the last wilderness of our planet at a time when we need to stop further loss of biodiversity and reduce our footprint on the planet’s natural systems.
 
"The deep sea is still largely unexplored but each dive in which biologists and ecologists participate shows that it is fragile, full of life and might hold many important functions that we humans and the planet need. Now the focus must be on exploring alternatives to the minerals in the deep.

"Next, we urge states to go to the International Seabed Authority to put a moratorium on the table and vote a resounding no to deep sea mining there too."


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