Should We Sacrifice The Seabed Floor For Next-Generation Technology?

---

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

Last Updated on: 13th August 2025, 09:36 am

When President Donald Trump issued an executive order this summer promoting deep sea mining — which is currently prohibited under international law — he didn’t take into account the creatures that live on the seabed floor. Thousands of meters below sea level in deep black waters, marine animals survive without direct light, plants, or the warmth of the sun.

In the deep sea, minerals are contained within slow-forming, potato-sized polymetallic “nodules.” Recent advancements in technology have made it possible to mine these nodules by sending vehicles down to the seafloor. Yet a community of animals lives on the nodules, and these deep sea creatures would be destroyed if the nodules are mined.

Minerals such as lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, manganese, and rare earth elements are essential ingredients in everything from wind turbines and electric vehicles to cell phones, medical technologies, and military infrastructure. To the Trump administration and other countries and companies, exploring underwater mineral deposits and mining techniques is a new and compelling as a way to retrieve some of these valuable mineral deposits.

When the US Department of the Interior announced it would evaluate a potential mineral lease sale in the waters offshore American Samoa, it didn’t heed scientists’ warning that deep sea mining could adversely affect life there. The seabed floor ecosystem is full of rare and fascinating deep sea life, Lisa Levin, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, toldSalon. Some deep sea marine animals use bioluminescent lights to communicate with one another. Many live in regions called oxygen-minimum zones — also known as “dead zones” or “shadow zones” — and they have developed elaborate breathing structures to increase the surface area necessary to absorb oxygen.

The deep sea has been called Earth’s last frontier — the only largely untouched place on the planet. It is a vast and vulnerable part of our world, and seabed floor mineral extraction doesn’t take into account how little is known about the deep beyond.

‌

The oceans had long been subject to a freedom-of-the-seas doctrine until the mid-twentieth century, when many countries recognized the need to set down rules for all ocean areas, all uses of the ocean, and its resources through a comprehensive treaty. As recalled annually by the General Assembly, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out. It is of strategic importance as the basis for national, regional, and global action and cooperation in the marine sector, and the UN argues that its integrity needs to be maintained.

Last month progress was attempted to finalize a code that would permit commercial mining on the high seas under the Law of the Sea. Inherent in this negotiation is the idea that the deep sea nodules legally belong to all people living on Earth today as well as to future generations.

The International Seabed Authority’s Brazilian secretary-general, Leticia Carvalho, told listeners in a speech that “what will prevent the Wild West are the rules.”

That sense of international munificence isn’t stopping the Trump Administration. The Administration plans to permit mining in international waters under the antiquated Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, which predates the Law of the Sea treaty. The Act promotes deep seabed exploration, encourages the conservation of deep sea mineral resources, and supports the development of technology necessary to recover the hard mineral resources of the deep seabed.

The Deep Seabed Floor is Filled with Unknown Marine Life

An area 200 meters below sea level is called the twilight zone: it’s the place where light starts to diminish. Keep going until you’re almost 11,000 meters below sea level — that’s the deepest part of the ocean.

Scientists continually analyze the deep sea for environmental changes and human impacts. Shallower waters and deep sea waters react differently to alterations in temperature, acidity, or oxygen levels. These influences take more time to reach the seabed floor, so they’re more rare — and likely to affect deep sea creatures more profoundly.

Each time scientists go on a deep sea expedition, they encounter previously unknown species; there are more new species being discovered than there are taxonomists to properly catalog them. In the deep sea there are numerous different ecosystems that differ by geography, temperature, and the animals that live there. The creatures of the deep sea could provide scientists with molecules or compounds to help develop better medicines or lead to other breakthrough discoveries.

For example, scientists identified fewer than 1,000 of up to 8,000 species in one region of the deep sea called the Clarion–Clipperton zone, which stretches the width of the continental United States. There’s the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, too; it is largely shaped by the forces of plate tectonics, with some of the oldest seabed floors on the planet.

These are potential zones for deep sea mining.

Other nations are investing aggressively in marine research, infrastructure, and technology, argues a team of oceanographers in a Washington Post editorial. They describe how “China in particular is deploying autonomous platforms and fielding new research vessels and icebreakers at a pace the United States has not matched. These investments are not just scientific — they are strategic and will shape the balance of power on the world’s oceans for decades to come. Despite this, federal investment in ocean science remains disproportionately small.”

Final Thoughts

Many of the desired deep sea minerals are currently used in most of the lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles. Then again, with technology expanding at breakneck speeds, no one is sure how much of these minerals the auto industry will need in the coming decades. China, for example, has extended its EV battery applications beyond cobalt, manganese, and nickel in its EV batteries. Instead, they’re looking to lithium, iron, and phosphate, which are able to be mined terrestrially.

The ocean is a precious and shared global resource. We need to protect it and the marine mammals that live in its depths. We are stewards of our world, and, even if our current state of research hasn’t uncovered the mysteries of the deep seas, we need to protect it nonetheless. It’s not only right for humanity but also for the interrelationship of all living things on the planet.