Prepared by Donnie Dann
Under the best conditions NOAA tells us that sunlight goes no deeper than 1000 meters. So what animal or plant life cannot just survive but actually thrive in this blackness? Apparently a lot, i.e., Goblin shark, rattail and tripod fish, dragon fish, zombie worms and so many more animals, most of which are poorly known to science, constitute a successful ecosystem. Similarly, algae, sargassum, phytoplankton and other plant life do well in their world, the deep sea floor.
It is the rarest of habitats on the planet, one that has hardly known the presence or footprint of human beings. Until recently considerable technological and cost challenges precluded major deep sea mining on the ocean floor.
Why
The deep ocean floor is now being coveted by many nations and mining companies. Preliminary expeditions have found a considerable variety of precious metals including gold, silver, cobalt, manganese, copper, nickel and more. To this point industries have been unwilling to heavily invest in such a difficult and costly undertaking, but the recent combination of technological advances in underwater mining and steep increases in the price of precious metals, including gold, has started an aggressive push to mine the deep ocean floor. With an estimated $150 trillion in gold under our oceans, countries around the world have begun preparations for undersea mining.
The deep ocean floor is now being coveted by many nations and mining companies. Preliminary expeditions have found a considerable variety of precious metals including gold, silver, cobalt, manganese, copper, nickel and more. To this point industries have been unwilling to heavily invest in such a difficult and costly undertaking, but the recent combination of technological advances in underwater mining and steep increases in the price of precious metals, including gold, has started an aggressive push to mine the deep ocean floor. With an estimated $150 trillion in gold under our oceans, countries around the world have begun preparations for undersea mining.
Why Not
The Center for Biological Diversity explains how “life on the deep ocean floor is still a mysterious realm that scientists have only just begun to inventory. They worry that this new gold rush will do untold damage to the ocean’s food web and other complex natural systems. As mountaintop-removal coal mining has done in Appalachia, deep-sea mining has the potential to do in the Pacific Ocean”.
Mining interests plan to use large, robotic machines to excavate the ocean floor in a way that’s similar to strip-mining on land. The materials are pumped up to the ship, while waste and debris are dumped back into the ocean.
Deep-sea mining operations will inevitably harm sensitive underwater ecosystems. The seafloor at the mining sites will be wiped clean of life and natural contours, directly affecting clams, mussels, corals, tube-worms, snails, the larval supply, and many yet undiscovered elements of life.
Litter atop Everest, more logging in the Amazon, Congo and temperate forests worldwide, and plastic pollution seemingly everywhere. Planet Earth was described by an astronaut as viewed from the moon as a “glimpse of divinity”. Should we really be destroying one of the last truly pristine habitats still remaining?