An advanced follow-up model, NOMAD, is larger but – thanks to consistent lightweight design – not heavier than the 1.5-metre-long TRAMPER and can carry four times as much weight in instruments. In the future, an even larger crawler will be available; roughly the size of a minivan, it will not only be able to monitor and record, but also to gather samples. These findings shed more light on how the depth, regional setting, and seafloor disturbance via seismic activities and nutrient supply Deep Sea from land interact to structure marine ecosystems. Scientists believe deep sea ecosystems may be as diverse as the world’s richest tropical rainforests.
When it comes to polymetallic nodule mining, the form of deep-sea mining likely to begin soonest, the study found that 20 species overlap with potential mining zones. As a result, the offshore oil industry often remains hidden until a disaster makes its precariousness undeniable, drawing attention to the risks inherent in its operations and the ethical dilemmas that arise when the deep sea is treated as an invisible resource frontier. The chaos and ‘messiness’ of the deep sea are also key factors in ethnographies that analyse how companies, for example, legitimise deep-sea mining projects (Childs 2019; Han 2022). Hydrothermal vents, underwater volcanoes, and the irregular crusts of seamounts are characteristics of the deep sea that corporations emphasise to influence political decisions. This reframing serves to minimise the environmental impact of mining operations, which create sediment plume, as relatively invisible within the dynamic and chaotic deep-sea environment.
Climate Change & Ocean Warming
The ocean has absorbed over 90% of the excess heat generated by the burning of fossil fuels; much of this heat has been transported to the deep by ocean currents. For that purpose, we have crawlers – autonomous tracked vehicles that can be precisely deployed on the seafloor by free fall or in a cable-tethered frame. Once there, they use their tracks to travel to predetermined sites, where they measure e.g. the oxygen content at different sediment depths. In addition to measuring devices, they have a high-resolution onboard camera, used to capture their surroundings. The AWI crawler TRAMPER can operate at depths of up to 6,000 metres and remain submerged for up to a year.
Light
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s mining code, known as the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1980. This pathway could be possible because the U.S. has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), under which the ISA sits. Last year some of the Deep-Seafas team took part in a research survey to Ascension and St Helena as part of the Blue Belt Programme, Discovery Research Vessel Expedition last November (#DY159). The UK Overseas Territories are collectively responsible for Marine Protected Areas that span over 4.3 million sq.
- Deep-sea mining, the extraction of minerals from the ocean floor, has gained attention in recent years due to the increasing demand for metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements.
- The seafloor is home to e.g. sponges, sea lilies, serpent and feather stars, sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers; the ecosystem’s mobile species include fish and squid.
- This risk may dissuade mining companies from pursuing mining in international waters in the near term.
- Museum curator Andrea Quattrini has spent her career using submarines and remotely operated vehicles to document coral reefs and the species that call these underwater “forests” home.
- To its north lies the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez, which leads into to the Suez Canal.
- A 60,000 km underwater mountain range stretches around our planet, formed as the plates that make up the Earth’s crust move against, or apart from, each other.
Framing the deep ocean as unknowable could reinforce the mistaken idea of it as ‘a separate realm where human harms dissolve into invisibility’ (Alaimo 2025, 11). 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. In fact, there are as many known species of deep-sea corals (also known as cold-water corals) as shallow-water species.
SEAMOUNTS
According to UN regulations (UNGA Res 61/105), deep-sea fisheries are meant to avoid what is known as ‘Significant Adverse Impacts’ upon vulnerable marine ecosystems. Even though these regulations were enacted in 2006, with the lack of data we have for the deep-sea, it remains a major challenge to get to grips with what the term ‘significant adverse impacts’ really means in different deep-sea environments. Seamounts affect ocean circulation and mixing, resulting in nutrient upwellings that stimulate phytoplankton growth, which in turn supports a wide array of marine life. The exposed rocks of seamounts swept clean of sediments by ocean currents are colonized by sessile organisms including cold-water corals and sponges, which globally host more than 1,000 different species including shrimps, crabs, worms and brittlestars. Above all, rising water temperatures are provoking rapid responses in the deep-sea ecosystem.
What We Know About Deep-Sea Mining — and What We Don’t
The Curasub is a 5-person manned submersible capable of descending to 1,000 feet. The state-of-the-art sub is equipped with hydraulic collecting arms that allow for the collection of marine life and the deployment of long-term monitoring devices on the deep reef. Diel vertical migrations aren’t the only type of movement between the shallows and deep.
- Further investigation into these unique habitats showed that many of the other creatures that live by the vents also rely on symbiotic bacteria.
- In addition to measuring devices, they have a high-resolution onboard camera, used to capture their surroundings.
- They obtain the energy and nutrients they need to survive by trapping tiny organisms in their polyps from passing currents.
- To establish these thresholds for ecotoxicology (how toxic substances affect the reproduction and survival of organisms within an ecosystem) in deep-sea fauna, scientists assess the balance of entire ecosystems.
- The regulations need to be backed by science and other forms of knowledge, enforceable, and offer effective protection for delicate marine environments from the impacts of mining.
- Despite its importance, the deep sea faces significant threats, from deep-sea mining and overfishing to pollution and climate change.
Nematodes make up 90 percent of the organisms living in the sediment; much more rarely, crabs and polychaetes can also be found. The seafloor is home to e.g. sponges, sea lilies, serpent and feather stars, sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers; the ecosystem’s mobile species include fish and squid. The biotic communities differ according to the water depth, and their occurrence chiefly depends on the available nutrients. According to a commonly used definition, it begins where the comparatively flat seafloor of the coastal regions segues into deeper and steeper areas. Depending on the respective region, this can be at very different water depths. In the Antarctic, for instance, the tremendous ice masses weigh down the continent considerably.
To establish these thresholds for ecotoxicology (how toxic substances affect the reproduction and survival of organisms within an ecosystem) in deep-sea fauna, scientists assess the balance of entire ecosystems. While some species may be more resistant to stress than others, the goal is to integrate various data types to evaluate the overall impact. Crucially, the loss of a particular species is not necessarily a concern—what matters is whether its ecological function can be replaced. This involves determining whether another species can fulfil the role of a sensitive organism. The Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) is a Smithsonian research program launched to explore marine life and monitor changes on deep reefs in the southern Caribbean.
Nevertheless, as the United States issues its licenses, the landscape will only continue to change, and the literal and geopolitical environment will undoubtedly shift, potentially irreversibly. Debates continue over whether investing in the technologies necessary to compete with China for an energy transition is worth the investment, particularly as oil continues to be the United States’s primary focus. Yet, regardless of whether the United States will eventually invest in renewable energy as it had just before Trump’s presidency, President Trump has positioned the country to put a new emphasis on deep-sea mining and search for critical minerals.