In short, President Trump’s executive order bypasses international regulation, placing the United States on a collision course with both the ISA and China. In 2024, ISA controlled deep-sea mining in roughly 54 percent of the world’s ocean through specialized contracts, regulations, and procedures. However, the US refused to ratify UNCLOS in 1982, specifically due to its provisions on deep-sea mining, and is not a member of the ISA. Previously, this lack of membership was not a significant point of contention.
What’s the Current Status of Deep-Sea Mining?
Some scholars have even called for the Middle Passage to be formally recognised as cultural heritage within the legal framework of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which governs DSM activities in international waters (Turner et al. 2020). Indeed, ‘the blue archive and the blue frontier are two sides of the same coin’ (Han 2024, 30), and special attention must be paid to how we collectively make sense of the deep sea. This perspective challenges visions of the ‘cyborgs of the deep’ as the only ‘heroes’ that will allow society to meet the requests of the ‘Green Shift’, i.e. of transitioning towards more environmentally friendly ways of living (Palermo and Steinberg 2024, 9). The deep sea is populated by ‘unseen bodies … whose hauntings persist’ even as their stories are obscured by the plumes of the remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) used to collect minerals (Palermo and Steinberg 2024). Recognising these ghosts and incorporating Black history into our understanding of the deep sea means examining the relationship between colonialism, exploration and the ocean.
- Envision a world where everyone can enjoy clean air, walkable cities, vibrant landscapes, nutritious food and affordable energy.
- For example, we are working with St Helena and Belize to trial a specialised underwater camera system that can be used at 1,000 metres, that is also cheap and easy to use.
- A brine lake is also an area high in methane and certain bacteria can use the methane in a chemical reaction to produce energy.
- Diel vertical migrations aren’t the only type of movement between the shallows and deep.
- They use this feature to attract males, but also (and especially) prey species.
- It may be the last place you’d expect to find corals—up to 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the ocean’s surface where the water is icy cold and completely dark.
- The AWI crawler TRAMPER can operate at depths of up to 6,000 metres and remain submerged for up to a year.
Rattail fish
- It calls for improved baseline monitoring using methods like baited and pelagic cameras, tagging studies and egg case surveys.
- When dense, nutrient rich ocean currents hit the seamount they deflect up toward the surface, allowing marine life to thrive on the newly supplied food.
- Specially adapted worms and snails take advantage of this feast by boring into the inner bone with acid and absorbing the fats inside with the help of bacteria.
- When it comes to the absolute darkness, many organisms have evolved sensory solutions – like biochemical sensors that can detect scents in the water.
- They involve questions of otherness and estrangement, which unsettle terrestrial assumptions and challenge conventional ethnographic methods.
- The reefs form platforms and sometimes lagoons along the coast and occasionally other features such as cylinders (such as the Blue Hole (Red Sea) at Dahab).
These layers of ocean ooze are important carbon sinks—drawing down the decomposing bits of carbon, laying them to rest on the seafloor, and finally burying them. Bioluminescence first arose roughly 540 million years ago in a group of corals known as the octocorals. Animals can use their light to lure prey towards their mouths, or even to light up the area nearby so that they can see their next meal a bit better. Sometimes the prey being lured can be small plankton, like those attracted to the bioluminescence around the beak of the Stauroteuthis octopus.
The Mysteries and Marvels of the Deep Sea: Exploring Earth’s Final Frontier
The study notes that filter feeders and light-sensitive species might be particularly vulnerable to these kinds of stressors. From the 1970s into the 1980s, the United States led the production and refinement of REEs, processing roughly three times more REE than the rest of the world combined. However, as early as the 1960s, China took notice and began investing, taking over the United States’s historical dominance by the 1990s. In 2024, China possessed 60 percent of the global REEs market and processed 90 percent of the global REEs market. Seeking further REE supply, China has increased its investment in the burgeoning industry of deep-sea mining. Deep-sea mining would involve extracting rocky deposits called polymetallic nodules or manganese nodules from the bottom of the ocean floor.
List of fauna species found in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba
Its margin, referred to as the continental shelf, can extend up to 500 metres below the water’s surface; only after this point does the deep sea begin. In contrast, in most other regions, this transition begins just 200 metres below sea level. Between 1840 and 1880, British and American scientists and hydrographers extensively studied the deep sea, a period marked by heightened cultural fascination with maritime depths. Scientific exploration during this era intersected with a broader acknowledgment of the economic and social importance of the maritime world, shaped by mid-nineteenth century maritime practices, technologies, and cultures. This setting was characterised by a masculine naval culture, physical challenges, and harsh conditions—a blending of scientific inquiry with maritime work cultures.
Threats to the Deep Sea
Some in the mining industry say the mining is necessary to a green transition – and essential to democratizing that transition globally since the supply chain is currently dominated by a single country, China. Meanwhile, some scientists caution against mining before the full scope of environmental damage can be understood. In addition to discharging wastewater below 2,000 m, it proposes that international organizations and conservation bodies, such as the ISA and Deep Sea IUCN, regularly update evaluations of deep-sea mining threats to chondrichthyans.