deep sea mining

10 July, 2023

MEDIA RELEASE

For release 10th July 2023 00:00 BST

This week countries from around the world will convene in Kingston, Jamaica to negotiate rules and regulations that if agreed and adopted, would open up our ocean to the largest mining operation humanity has ever seen. The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) urges governments to draw a line in the sand and support a moratorium on the destructive, emerging industry.

Continue reading The race to defend the deep heats up in Kingston

28 June, 2023

Ahead of the upcoming ISA’s 28th Council and Assembly meetings taking place from 10-28th July in Kingston, Jamaica, Switzerland have joined calls for a moratorium on the emerging industry. 

The Swiss Federal Council today stated that they “will defend the position of the moratorium on the commercial exploitation of the Area until the scientific knowledge on the effects of this is better known and the protection of the marine environment can be guaranteed.”

26 May, 2023

DSCC REACTIVE

26.5.23

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) renewed its calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining after a scientific paper was released warning of “alarmingly high” concentrations of radiation in polymetallic nodules which substantially exceed safe international levels. Radioactive particles include Ra-226, Ra-222, Th-230, and Pa-231 (radium-226, radon-222, thorium-230, and protactinium-231).

Continue reading Recent Findings of Radioactivity in Nodules Reinforces the Urgent Need for a Moratorium on Deep-Sea Mining

25 May, 2023

BLOG

By Phil McCabe, DSCC Pacific Regional Lead – Deep Sea Mining

The New Zealand Government initiated an inquiry into seabed mining within its jurisdictional waters earlier this month, signalling a change to domestic regulatory settings. This change would be more in line with New Zealand’s international position of a ‘conditional moratorium’, which was championed last October by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta.

The inquiry responds to Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s bill seeking to ban seabed mining in New Zealand’s waters and mounting pressure from environmental groups Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, Greenpeace Aotearoa and the wider community. The government chose not to support the bill to ban, citing concerns on the bill’s wording. However, instead initiated its own inquiry into the nascent and controversial industry.

The upset felt and expressed by Ngarewa-Packer, her Iwi Ngāti Ruanui and Ngā Rauru and the thousands of coastal residents and ocean lovers who have been battling seabed mining proposals for over a decade through relentless, gruelling legal battles at great expense, is warranted. I feel it too. Three EPA hearings, five court cases. Enough’s enough! 

Ngāti Ruanui, Parliament grounds, Wellington, May 10, 2023

The information to back the call for a ban is available in screeds. If the inquiry weighs it objectively, a ban is the only tenable outcome.  

The Government’s move has been widely seen as a dodge and delay tactic. Given the timing between recent and upcoming events, there is most definitely politicking at play. Whatever the reason for the Labour-led Government not supporting the bill, the fact is that a ban on seabed mining is now a live issue within the New Zealand Parliament. And that is new territory.

The Environment Select Committee inquiry will play out over the upcoming months, likely completed before this Parliament closes for the general election in October. Also this month, an EPA hearing process will recommence on Trans Tasman Resources’ application to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight, which was approved by the EPA in 2017 and quashed by three courts, ultimately being sent back to the EPA for reconsideration by the Supreme Court. 

Drawing back to the Pacific regional and global viewpoints, the issue of deep-sea mining is highly topical, sensitive and fast moving. With three extensive EPA hearing processes and ensueing court cases since 2013, Aotearoa New Zealand has scrutinised the activity more so than any other jurisdiction on Earth. Therefore New Zealand has an important role to play in these wider contexts. The last decade in New Zealand has been a cautionary forerunner to what is currently playing out elsewhere and perhaps the Government has eyed its moral obligation to share the country’s experience and findings with their closest neighbours and the wider world as they grapple with the complex environmental, economic and social implications of seabed mining. And perhaps the New Zealand Government can feel the warm glow of opportunity that lies within that journey. 

18 April, 2023

DSCC REACTION

18.4.23

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) calls on G7 countries to up their ambition and take critical action to defend the deep ocean following the release of the G7 Climate, Energy and Environment Ministers’ Communique released on 16 April 2023.

G7 Climate, Energy and Environment Ministers met in Sapporo, Japan on April 15-16. They agreed to move toward a quicker phase-out of fossil fuels and plastics but failed to commit to safeguarding the deep ocean, despite its critical importance to planetary health.

Continue reading G7 countries must lead the charge to protect the blue heart of our planet