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Deep-sea mining impacts visible 44 years on, UK expedition finds [1]
['Adam Vaughan', 'Environment Editor', 'Linda Daly', 'Jacqui Goddard', 'Ben Spencer', 'Science Editor', 'The Times', 'Lottie Hayton', 'Helen Puttick']
Date: 2025-04
The effects of deep-sea mining tests are still visible more than four decades later, an expedition led by British scientists has found.
An expedition to the Pacific two years ago by the Natural History Museum and several British universities was the first to assess the long-term effects of early efforts to reap metals from sea beds.
It found strikingly unchanged tracks almost a metre deep created by machines in 1979 when a consortium led by Lockheed Martin tested mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean. Though researchers described the effect on marine life 44 years ago as a “mixed picture”, they recorded declines in the number and variety of a group of animals that included starfish and sponges.
The findings come at a critical time as almost 170 countries including Britain meet for a second week in Jamaica for UN talks on international rules for deep-sea mining. A Canadian company will apply in June for a licence to begin the first commercial deep-sea mine. The Metals Company is targeting cobalt, copper and nickel in the potato-sized polymetallic nodules of the zone in the Pacific.
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[1] Url:
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/deep-sea-mining-impacts-visible-44-years-on-uk-expedition-finds-mrq3hfmwp
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