Welcome to Seabed Spotlight

A newsletter about deep seabed mining

The concept is simple enough: Collect rocks from the bottom of the ocean.

The idea to mine the seabed dates back to at least 1871, when Jules Verne wrote of a watery metals bonanza in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That was a novel. But as the marine biologist Andrew Thaler says: It’s science fiction, until it isn’t.

I’m here to talk about that isn’t.

Right now, you can’t buy an electric car battery made of ocean rocks. That could change soon.

Regulators around the world—in coastal countries and the UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority—are crafting rules that would push deep seabed mining from idea to industry. Mining companies say dredging minerals from the remote seafloor is a low-impact way to get materials for the energy transition. (Land-based mining has a spotty environmental and social record, to say the least; seabed locations targeted by mining companies have a lower abundance of life than most terrestrial ecosystems.)

Environmental groups are not so sure. An alliance of hundreds of marine science experts, plus a handful of governments and large corporations, have called for a global pause on the industry before it begins. They fear seabed mining could destroy deep ocean ecosystems whose menagerie of life forms we’re just beginning to explore. Studies suggest seabed mining impacts could sprawl hundreds of miles beyond the extraction site.

These tensions are set to grow in 2024.

A mining startup boldly dubbed The Metals Company says it will apply this summer to commercially mine a swath of eastern Pacific seafloor. It would be the first ever application reviewed by the International Seabed Authority. It could be rejected. Or it could be the green light for a brand-new extractive industry.

I’ve covered seabed mining as part of my climate beat for the past five years. With 2024 set to provide a torrent of seabed mining news, I’m launching Seabed Spotlight to make sense of the industry’s twists and turns—and what it all means for our planet and economy. Posts will include news roundups with some analysis and context tacked on.

For now, here are some resources to get up to speed on the industry:

• DSM Observer – This outlet stopped publishing at the end of 2022, but it’s got a great archive covering everything from environmental impacts of seabed mining, to why seabed mining could set precedents for extractive industries in space. Props to Andrew Thaler for maintaining the site for years. You can still read Andrew’s writing on seabed mining at Southern Fried Science.

• Volts podcast – I joined David Roberts last October to give a medium-wonky explainer on seabed mining. Some of the newsy bits are dated, but I think it’s still a good primer. (For a less wonky backgrounder, give a listen to this episode of How to Save a Planet.)

• Washington Post piece about China’s ambition to dominate the seabed mining industry.

• New York Times investigation into the relationship between The Metals Company and the International Seabed Authority.

• MIT visualization of how mining for polymetallic nodules might work. Note: this video does not discuss possible environmental impacts, such as noise pollution and habitat destruction.