A wealth of biodiversity has been found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area earmarked for exploitation by mineral firms
Scientists have discovered more thanliving on the seabed in an untouched area of the Pacific Ocean that has been identified as a future hotspot for deep-sea mining, according to a review of the environmental surveys done in the area.
Contracts for mining exploration in the CCZ have been granted to 17 deep-sea mining contractors in an area covering 745,000 sq miles. The companies, backed by countries including the UK, US and China, want to exploit minerals including cobalt, manganese and nickel, in part to sell to the alternative energy sector.
“We share this planet with all this amazing biodiversity and we have a responsibility to understand it and protect it,” said Muriel Rabone, the paper’s lead author, a deep-sea ecologist at the Natural History Museum .To study and collect specimens from the ocean floor, biologists have joined research cruises in the Pacific that send remote-controlled vehicles to traverse the seabed 4,000 to 6,000 metres below., described it as an “incredible privilege”.
The NHM has previously worked with UKSR and Deep Green, now the Metals Company, another mining firm, as a contractor in the area to provide baseline biodiversity data. It insists all data gathered is open-access in peer-reviewed literature.The scientists watch operations by video link direct from the boat, as new species are gathered by remote operating vehicles in the darkness below.
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