The race to mine battery minerals from the ocean floor would create a new stream of waste that could rob sea life of a critical food source, according to new research published today in the journal Nature Communications. That could have far-reaching effects across the ocean, potentially reaching larger fish like tuna that people depend on for food and livelihoods.
The findings come as President Donald Trump attempts to circumvent international law and give companies permission to mine the deep sea commercially, which has yet to happen anywhere in the world. The first company to apply for an international mining permit from the Trump administration actually funded this study. It might not have anticipated that the results of that research would raise another warning flag about deep-sea mining.
The study authors found that if mining operations release waste into the ocean’s “twilight zone,” about 200 to 1,500 meters below the surface of the sea, it could starve tiny animals called zooplankton and other creatures that eat them. That could have serious ramifications along entire food webs that connect predators and their prey, leading the scientists to argue there still needs to be more research into how to avoid potential risks.
“Put the brakes on this process”
“We’re trying to go against that [rush to mine] and put the brakes on this process. We don’t have the science to fully conclude what’s the best option,” says Michael Dowd, lead author of the study and an oceanography graduate student in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “Those current plans are going to cause severe impacts.”
The Trump administration has set its sights on rock-like polymetallic nodules on the seafloor that are rich in nickel, cobalt, and manganese, which can be used to manufacture rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. A Canadian startup called The Metals Company (TMC) calls those nodules “batteries in a rock” and triggered a deep-sea mining craze several years ago when it partnered with the island nation of Nauru to start commercially harvesting those minerals. The effort pushed the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to start developing a “mining code” to regulate deep-sea mining and protect natural resources considered a “common heritage of humankind.”
More than 900 ocean scientists and policy experts, meanwhile, have called for a freeze on deep-sea exploitation in a public statement that says mining could result “in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that would be irreversible on multi-generational timescales.”
This year, The Metals Company and the Trump administration decided to move ahead rather than wait for the ISA to finalize its mining code. Trump signed an executive order to fast-track seabed mining in US and international waters, and TMC soon applied for a permit under that process. Critics say these moves violate international law, and ISA secretary-general Leticia Reis de Carvalho has said that unilateral action to mine the deep sea “sets a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.”
Nodules on the abyssal seafloor in the Pacific’s Clarion Clipperton Zone with a mud cloud from a scientific ROV touching down. UH/NOImage: AA DeepCCZ Expedition
The new research adds to those calls for caution. The mining process involves transporting nodules along with seawater and sediments via pipe up to a ship where the valuable metals can be separated and collected. The leftover waste is pumped back into the ocean, but where exactly to dump it in the vast abyss is still a big question.
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