A Hawaii congressman has introduced legislation calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining, calling the practice potentially “destructive.”
The call for a ban comes as a Canada company is hoping to extract rare minerals from the bottom of the Pacific — as Native Hawaiians and environmentalists are lining up against it.
The international demand for those metals is growing — in part to make batteries for electric vehicles — and one of the richest untapped resources is two and a half miles underwater.
The Metals Company from Canada wants to start commercial mining in the Pacific. A New York Times investigation found the company could earn $31 billion over 25 years.
Last Thursday, Native Hawaiians and environmentalists gathered to protest the ship “The Hidden Gem” and its brief appearance near shore.
“Sea temperatures rising, corals bleaching, we are losing,” said Archie Kalepa, Polynesian Voyaging Society captain.
The Metals Company said the ship came to Hawaii for a crew change.
“I’m pretty convinced that some forms of deep sea mining are very destructive to our oceans,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who introduced legislation calling for a ban on deep sea mining in U.S. and international waters.
Oceanographer and explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle has sailed on the famed Hokulea voyaging canoe and was Time Magazine’s first Hero for the Planet.
She told Hawaii News Now deep sea mining should not be allowed because of the threat to sea life.
“It causes extinctions without even knowing the names for these creatures,” said Earle. “Ocean drives climate and weather. It’s where the greatest diversity of life actually exists.”
Gerard Barron, The Metals Company CEO, told HNN he hopes to get international regulatory approval to start commercial deep sea mining in 2025 in an area of the Pacific called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. He says his company is conducting research.
“What we should be focused on is where can we get the metals that we all agree that we are going to need to enable us to transition away from fossil fuels with the lightest planetary impact,” he said.
Barron dismissed dire warnings, saying data shows minimal impact, especially compared to other forms of land-based mining. He called the area where they want to mine a “marine desert.”
“If you measure the amount of life there, it is measured in grams per square meter. There are no trees, no plants at all,” said Barron.
Case responded to those statements, saying, “I think the CEO is very focused on getting their mining going. They are investing a lot of money in it and they are trying to get a jump start on everybody else in the world so what do you expect the CEO to say that it’s environmentally unsafe.”
There have been protests on the high seas by Greenpeace against the The Metals Company and its research vessel.
“We have a legally right to protest at sea and that was upheld by Dutch law,” said Arlo Hemphill, Greenpeace USA.
Thirty Republicans in the U.S. House sent the Defense Secretary a letter calling for exploration of deep sea mining to combat China’s dominance of the global supply chain for mineral resources.
More than 20 countries have called for a ban or a moratorium.