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Mussel power: how an offshore shellfish farm is boosting marine life.

Mussel farming provides a sustainable alternative protein source for human diets, because mussels filter feed on plankton and do not have to be fed wild-caught fish.

Researchers have found that one offshore mussel farm is boosting marine biodiversity and regenerating the seabed.

mediafaro.org/article/20250606

The Conversation UK · Mussel power: how an offshore shellfish farm is boosting marine life.By Emma Sheehan, Llucia Mascorda-Cabre

#US Is Reviewing #ImpossibleMetals Proposal to #Mine the #Seabed
The Interior Department said it would review a new proposal for operations off the coast of #AmericanSamoa.
The move follows an #executiveorder that urged government agencies to expedite permits for #seabedmining in US territorial waters as well as international waters. Most other nations argue US does not have the legal right to mine the seabed beyond its own territorial waters.
nytimes.com/2025/05/21/climate
archive.ph/B5zn4

The New York Times · U.S. Is Reviewing Impossible Metals Proposal to Mine the SeabedBy Max Bearak

As #Norway Considers #DeepSeaMining, a Rich History of Ocean Conservation Decisions May Inform How the Country Acts

In the past, scientists, industry and government have worked together in surprising, tense and fruitful ways

by Christian Elliott, April 21, 2025

"At the #Arctic #MidOceanRidge off the Norwegian coast, molten rock rises from deep within the Earth between spreading tectonic plates. Black smoker vents sustain unique ecosystems in the dark. Endemic species of long, segmented bristle worms and tiny crustaceans graze on bacteria mats and flit among fields of chemosynthetic tube worms, growing thick as grass. Dense banks of sponges cling to the summits and slopes of underwater mountains. And among all this life, minerals build up slowly over millennia in the form of #sulfide deposits and #manganese crusts.

"Those minerals are the kind needed to fuel the global green energy transition—#copper, #zinc and #cobalt. In January 2024, Norway surprised the world with the announcement it planned to open its waters for exploratory deep-sea mining, the first nation to do so. If all went to plan, companies would be issued licenses to begin identifying mineral deposits as soon as #Spring2025. To some scientists who’d spent decades mapping and studying the geology and ecology of the Norwegian seabed and Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge, the decision seemed premature—they still lacked critical data on the area targeted for mining. The government’s own Institute of Marine Research (IMR) accused it of extrapolating from a small area where data has already been collected to the much larger zone now targeted

“ 'Our advice has been we don’t have enough knowledge,' says Rebecca Ross, an #ecologist at IMR who works on Norway’s #Mareano deep-sea mapping initiative. She says the decision was based solely on the #geology of the area. Taking high-resolution scans of the seabed and sampling its geology is the first step when research ships enter a new area, but critical biological and ecological research is more difficult and tends to come later—which is the case on the ridge area targeted for mining. Ross says it’s certain that area contains vulnerable marine ecosystems that would be affected by the light and noise pollution and sediment plumes generated by mining. The IMR estimates closing the knowledge gap on the target area could take ten years.

"The same conflict, with a partial scientific understanding misinterpreted and used to justify resource extraction, is playing out in the #Pacific, where mining pilot projects are already underway in international waters. Years before, scientists funded by industry scouted the #seabed there, discovering both valuable minerals and new forms of life."

Read more:
smithsonianmag.com/science-nat

Bottom trawling in European waters costs society up to €11bn a year, new study finds.

A first-of-its-kind study released today found that this cost is largely due to carbon dioxide emissions from disturbed sediments on the seafloor.

The study is the first to measure the full economic cost of bottom trawling in European waters - including the EU, UK, Norway and Iceland.

mediafaro.org/article/20250325

Euronews · Bottom trawling in European waters costs society up to €11bn a year, new study finds.By Euronews

A UN body that regulates deep international waters is preparing to elect its next leader,
a crucial position as it faces pressure to either ban, approve or place a moratorium on #seabed #mining.

The upcoming election comes as the Jamaica-based 🔸International Seabed Authority 🔸ended a two-week session on Friday without reaching a consensus on a regulatory framework for deep-sea mining.

The drawn-out debate raises concerns that the authority could receive an application later this year seeking the first deep sea mining exploitation license without having rules or regulations in place.

The Metals Company, a Canadian-based mining company, is largely expected to be the first to apply for such a license.

Mining exploration has been ongoing in the 🔹Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, 🔹
which covers 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico.

It is occurring at depths ranging from 13,000 to 19,000 feet (4,000 to 6,000 meters).

However, no exploitation licenses have been issued.

That could soon change given that some companies and countries are eager to mine the seabed and meet a surging demand for #precious #metals including cobalt, nickel and copper that are used in green technology.

♦️More than two dozen countries have called for a ban, pause or moratorium on deep-sea mining. ♦️

Companies including BMW and Samsung SDI also have pledged not to use raw materials from deep-sea mining.

However, proponents of deep-sea mining say it is cheaper and has less of an impact than land mining.

Olav Myklebust, the authority's council president, told reporters Friday that there are still outstanding issues regarding a proposed regulatory framework, including inspection, compliance and enforcement and how best to determine payments related to exploitation.

He and secretary general Michael Lodge, who is seeking a third term, did not say if exploitation should start despite the absence of rules and regulations.

business-standard.com/world-ne

Today starts the highly #political 29th session of the #International #Seabed #Authority ( #ISA )on the #protection of the #habitats of the #ocean #floor in #deep #sea ,about which #science knows less than about the #surface of the #moon .Some #states ,such as #France & #Greece ,want total #conservation ,others ( #Australia , #Brazil , #Canada etc) a #moratorium on all #mining ,while #Russia , #India & #China are in favour of #industralized #mining of #metals used in #electric #car #batteries .

Global activity of #seafloor #biodiversity mapped for the first time phys.org/news/2024-05-global-s

Global distribution and environmental correlates of marine #bioturbation cell.com/current-biology/abstr

"like #worms enriching the soil in our garden, invertebrates are doing the same on the #seabed—improving conditions for #ocean life. Understanding how these processes operate gives #scientists insights into what is driving the health of #oceans and how they may respond to #ClimateChange."

#Environmental campaigners have filed a #lawsuit at an #Oslo court challenging #Norway's plan for #seabed mineral exploration, citing insufficient impact assessment of the #mining, the World Wide Fund for #Nature #WWF and its lawyer said on Friday.

Norway's parliament in January approved a proposal to open a vast ocean area larger than Britain for seabed mineral exploration after a government-commissioned study concluded that its impact would be minimal.

reuters.com/sustainability/cli

Colossal underwater canyon discovered near seamount deep in the #Mediterranean Sea livescience.com/planet-earth/r

Discovery of the #Messinian Eratosthenes Canyon in the deep Levant Basin sciencedirect.com/science/arti

"around 6 million years ago... the #MediterraneanSea became isolated from the world's #oceans and dried up for roughly 700,000 years... As #SeaLevels dropped, increasingly salty currents eroded the #seabed... researchers now describe a giant U-shaped #canyon located 120 km south of #Cyprus"