NPR · 34 days ago

U.S. Pushes Ahead on deep-sea mining, Apart From International Rules

More than 10,000 feet below the ocean's surface lie polymetallic nodules -- potato-sized formations that took millions of years to form and now hold metals coveted for batteries and technology. While the Trump administration fast-tracks permits to vacuum these nodules from the seafloor, bypassing international frameworks to compete with China, scientists warn that mining threatens ecosystems we barely understand, where 90 percent of species remain unknown to science. "It's a bit of a fallacy that there's not much down there," says one researcher, pointing to creatures like Casper, a translucent octopus that lays its eggs on sponges growing on the very nodules slated for extraction. Mining companies argue their approach causes less harm than land-based operations, but studies show biodiversity drops by nearly a third even two months after test mining -- and no one yet knows if those fragile communities, adapted to one of Earth's most extreme environments, can ever recover.