Source: Greenpeace
Greenpeace activists from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland unfold a banner that reads “NO DEEP SEA MINING” at the Mining Vessel Hidden Gem in the Waalhaven port of Rotterdam. The Action is part of a protest against Deep Sea Mining.
As the ISA’s meeting of the Council gets in full swing this week, activists from Greenpeace scaled a vast 228m deep sea mining vessel in Rotterdam port.
The Swiss-owned drilling ship, longer than two football fields and wider than four double-decker buses laid end to end, is in port to receive extensive renovations. The work is being carried out in partnership with would-be minersT he Metals Company (formerly DeepGreen).
“The scale of this thing is just huge. Make no mistake, this monster machine is built for profit: nothing else. It’s not for delicately exploring the seafloor – it’s for profit at the expense of nature. We know more about the surface of the moon than about the seafloor and we’re still discovering new species in the deep ocean, but these companies just see dollar signs down there. If we don’t act now we risk signing away the fate of the largest ecosystem on Earth to a handful of companies whose only interest is monetising them. It’s environmentally destructive, economically unproven and politically toxic. We need to stop deep sea mining before it begins.”
Greenpeace Netherlands activist Samuel Gosschalk