Berliner Boersenzeitung - Deep sea mining impacts visible for 'many decades'

EUR -
AED 4.107536
AFN 78.592029
ALL 98.147558
AMD 432.193445
ANG 2.001397
AOA 1025.480815
ARS 1274.644772
AUD 1.742714
AWG 2.015734
AZN 1.888246
BAM 1.95537
BBD 2.260803
BDT 136.050107
BGN 1.955353
BHD 0.422103
BIF 3331.867931
BMD 1.118299
BND 1.453981
BOB 7.7373
BRL 6.333072
BSD 1.119744
BTN 95.726967
BWP 15.141538
BYN 3.664395
BYR 21918.666093
BZD 2.249206
CAD 1.562152
CDF 3210.637352
CHF 0.934395
CLF 0.027462
CLP 1053.84045
CNY 8.062383
CNH 8.069676
COP 4712.915798
CRC 567.170311
CUC 1.118299
CUP 29.634931
CVE 110.240778
CZK 24.864322
DJF 199.396189
DKK 7.461333
DOP 65.894933
DZD 148.835967
EGP 55.934716
ERN 16.774489
ETB 151.164735
FJD 2.542228
FKP 0.841973
GBP 0.840902
GEL 3.064335
GGP 0.841973
GHS 13.884949
GIP 0.841973
GMD 81.080293
GNF 9696.869431
GTQ 8.59688
GYD 234.268527
HKD 8.745156
HNL 29.135338
HRK 7.535323
HTG 146.517808
HUF 402.746586
IDR 18412.182752
ILS 3.965215
IMP 0.841973
INR 95.593565
IQD 1466.877702
IRR 47094.35844
ISK 145.915911
JEP 0.841973
JMD 178.499184
JOD 0.793206
JPY 162.310517
KES 145.010467
KGS 97.79494
KHR 4481.015444
KMF 493.732836
KPW 1006.469411
KRW 1564.892015
KWD 0.343754
KYD 0.933195
KZT 570.91456
LAK 24216.67918
LBP 100327.756269
LKR 335.046385
LRD 223.940796
LSL 20.213459
LTL 3.302047
LVL 0.676448
LYD 6.177643
MAD 10.387918
MDL 19.505714
MGA 5018.852393
MKD 61.516484
MMK 2348.07397
MNT 3996.54604
MOP 9.01342
MRU 44.318866
MUR 51.564368
MVR 17.288784
MWK 1941.556045
MXN 21.752873
MYR 4.820014
MZN 71.461519
NAD 20.213459
NGN 1797.03967
NIO 41.200947
NOK 11.613761
NPR 153.161978
NZD 1.897014
OMR 0.429416
PAB 1.119754
PEN 4.128293
PGK 4.653936
PHP 62.406668
PKR 315.312901
PLN 4.284764
PYG 8940.035721
QAR 4.081094
RON 5.045784
RSD 117.204248
RUB 90.513702
RWF 1603.43336
SAR 4.194403
SBD 9.327095
SCR 15.919302
SDG 671.541257
SEK 10.922826
SGD 1.452005
SHP 0.878808
SLE 25.388204
SLL 23450.17721
SOS 639.953669
SRD 40.909069
STD 23146.537475
SVC 9.797847
SYP 14539.961405
SZL 20.218377
THB 37.161279
TJS 11.544364
TMT 3.919639
TND 3.375968
TOP 2.619168
TRY 43.46528
TTD 7.595331
TWD 33.74189
TZS 3026.375525
UAH 46.479572
UGX 4097.099797
USD 1.118299
UYU 46.588514
UZS 14517.810188
VES 105.350755
VND 29023.221485
VUV 135.450953
WST 3.107226
XAF 655.807044
XAG 0.034487
XAU 0.000347
XCD 3.02226
XDR 0.815614
XOF 655.812907
XPF 119.331742
YER 272.978542
ZAR 20.186812
ZMK 10066.036708
ZMW 30.098387
ZWL 360.091915
  • CMSC

    -0.0500

    22.05

    -0.23%

  • BCC

    0.9200

    91.91

    +1%

  • SCS

    0.0000

    10.5

    0%

  • GSK

    0.4991

    37.64

    +1.33%

  • NGG

    1.2500

    71.28

    +1.75%

  • BTI

    1.2700

    42.64

    +2.98%

  • BP

    0.1300

    29.76

    +0.44%

  • CMSD

    0.0472

    22.06

    +0.21%

  • JRI

    0.1600

    12.9

    +1.24%

  • RIO

    -0.1100

    62.64

    -0.18%

  • RBGPF

    64.5000

    64.5

    +100%

  • AZN

    0.8500

    68.81

    +1.24%

  • RELX

    0.5300

    54.57

    +0.97%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    10.72

    +0.19%

  • BCE

    -0.0700

    21.56

    -0.32%

  • VOD

    0.1800

    9.45

    +1.9%

Deep sea mining impacts visible for 'many decades'
Deep sea mining impacts visible for 'many decades' / Photo: Handout - National Oceanography Centre / Smartex project (NERC)/AFP/File

Deep sea mining impacts visible for 'many decades'

Scientists said they have seen the first signs of life returning to deep sea mining tracks carved into the abyssal seabed more than four decades ago, but warned on Wednesday that full recovery may be "impossible".

Text size:

The new research, published in the journal Nature, comes as countries argue over the creation of the world's first mining code on deep sea extraction at a meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica.

Scientists and campaigners have long insisted that future industrial-level mining will threaten marine ecosystems.

Risks range from species extinctions and damage to the ocean food web, to the potential for exacerbating climate change by churning up sediment that stores planet-heating carbon.

In the latest research, scientists in Britain assessed the lasting impact of one of the oldest known mining tracks in the vast Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), stretching between Hawaii and Mexico in international waters.

At depths of more than 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), the seabed here is scattered with metal rich rocks known as "nodules" and is home to a huge number of strange and rare animals almost entirely unknown to science.

A 1979 test in the CCZ left a wide strip of seabed cleared of nodules and framed by deep tracks eight metres (26 foot) apart made by the mining machine.

In 2023, scientists surveyed the site and found these marks in the seafloor remained clearly visible.

"The numbers of many animals were reduced within the tracks but we did see some of the first signs of biological recovery," said lead author Daniel Jones of the National Oceanography Centre.

While small and more mobile creatures were seen within the mining area, larger-sized animals that are fixed to the seafloor were still "very rare", he said.

The sediment plumes kicked up by the machines where not found to have had a lasting impact, according to the research.

The authors said that while more modern equipment could be designed to limit the impact on ocean wildlife, the likely scale of any mining operations if they went ahead meant "visible physical impacts of the collection can be assumed to last for at least many decades".

They added that a full return of life in affected regions "may be impossible" with the removal of the nodules, which are themselves a habitat for marine animals.

- Spies to smartphones -

The research marks "the longest term assessment of a deep sea mining track", Jones told reporters earlier this month.

Jones trawled the archives to pinpoint the location of the 1979 test, which was carried out following a CIA plot to recover a Russian nuclear submarine -- using deep-sea mining as a cover story.

The CIA then leased their ship for real deep-sea mining, according to Jones.

He said the 1979 test, carried out by private firms, was to see if harvesting the nodules was technically feasible and was "much smaller than a true mining event would look like".

After that, interest and funding fizzled out.

But recent years have seen renewed interest in exploiting the potato-sized nodules, which are thought to have formed over millions of years and contain metals like cobalt and nickel, which are used in technologies such as smartphones and rechargeable batteries.

There are estimated to be around 21 billion tonnes of nodules on the seabed of the CCZ.

"Our results don't provide an answer to whether deep-sea mining is societally acceptable, but they do provide the data needed to make better informed policy decisions," said co-author Adrian Glover from Britain's Natural History Museum.

He added that it could help in creating protected areas and inform monitoring efforts.

(F.Schuster--BBZ)