For years the ‘bad ones’ have poisoned rivers, devastated forests and displaced communities, and now massive companies are rushing to dig up the seabed for precious metals.

MIT: “The ocean’s deep-sea bed is scattered with ancient, potato-sized rocks called “polymetallic nodules” that contain nickel and cobalt — minerals that are in high demand for the manufacturing of batteries, such as for powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy, and in response to factors such as increasing urbanization. The deep ocean contains vast quantities of mineral-laden nodules, but the impact of mining the ocean floor is both unknown and highly contested.”

And yet, only twenty-four people have the regulatory powers to stop this type of plunder in our planet’s most fragile places:  The International Seabed Authority.  You’ve likely never heard of them because this group attracts as little attention as an underwater mine miles offshore.

A few countries have agreed to full or partial bans, and leading scientists have appealed for a freeze on deep sea mining contracts.

Mining companies claim they can mine the seabed safely, but authorities in Namibia, Australia and New Zealand have blocked seabed mining projects.  Scientists point out that many deep water species are being discovered quite regularly, and that the ocean floor can take decades to recover from disturbances such as the creation of sediment plumes from deep sea floor bed mining.

The International Seabed Authority has already issued licenses for exploratory mining across 1.2 million square kilometers of ocean floor. As mentioned earlier, this regulatory body is almost unknown, and its 24-person Legal and Technical Committee is solely responsible for the detailed scrutiny of proposals and environmental safeguards.

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