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In a study published in Scientific Reports, scientists discovered impressive abundance and diversity among the creatures living on the seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ)—an area in the equatorial Pacific Ocean being targeted for deep-sea mining. The study, lead authored by Diva Amon, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), found that more than half of the species they collected were new to science, reiterating how little is known about life on the seafloor in this region.
"We found that this exploration claim area harbors one of the most diverse communities of megafauna [animals over 2 cm in size] to be recorded at abyssal depths in the deep sea," said Amon.
The deep sea is where the next frontier of mining will take place. A combination of biological, chemical and geological processes has led to the formation of high concentrations of polymetallic "manganese" nodules on the deep seafloor in the CCZ—an area nearly the size of the contiguous United States. These nodules are potentially valuable sources of copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese, among other metals, which has led to an interest in mining this region. All of the potential polymetallic-nodule exploration contracts that have been granted in the Pacific are in this region, according to the International Seabed Authority.
[...] The preliminary data from these surveys showed that more animals live on the seafloor in areas with higher nodule abundance. Further, the majority of the megafaunal diversity also appears to be dependent on the polymetallic nodules themselves, and thus are likely to be negatively affected by mining impacts.
"The biggest surprises of this study were the high diversity, the large numbers of new species and the fact that more than half of the species seen rely on the nodules—the very part of the habitat that will be removed during the mining process," said Amon.
Exploitation plans are pushing ahead even though knowledge of the seafloor ecosystem in this region is still limited.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by jmorris on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:40AM
So the barren nothing out on the deep ocean floor suddenly becomes a precious, diverse community of megafauna the instant somebody wants to harvest some of the minerals. An area the side of CONUS and if they pick up some of the rocks a hitherto unseen ecosystem will collapse. Why am I not surprised? Is there ANYWHERE the enviros wouldn't object?
Listen up chuckleheads. If you want iPhones and the rest of the fun parts of the modern, industrialized world we gotta mine minerals. So pick one: land, sea or space. There is no option #4. We have already hit the point where most of the land area attracts so many lawyers it isn't practical to mine, space is lifeless but we aren't quite ready to go there... and the enviros and the U.N. are already primed to object anyway. Picking up metal rich rocks just laying on the ocean floor is just about the lowest environmental impact mining we are likely to see. So lets tell the greens to STFU and get on with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @12:56AM
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there."
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Saturday July 30 2016, @01:03AM
1. Find water ocean on Europa.
2. Find life.
3. Strip mine it, make more iPhones.
4. Profit!
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:23AM
So pick one: land, sea or space. There is no option #4.
Electronic and industrial waste?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Francis on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:53AM
First off, the sea bottom is largely unexplored, we don't really know what we're screwing up there. The most likely reason for the discovery now is that nobody had gotten around to examining that portion of the seafloor.
Secondly, we don't need those minerals. We haven't yet attempted to extract them, so it sort of suggests that we probably aren't going to die a nasty death if we don't extract them.
And lastly, we're doing damage now that might be impossible to undo. And even if we can ultimately undo the damage, it would take a huge amount of money and time for that to happen. Better hope that the cure for cancer or the data we need to study for space exploration doesn't lie down there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:58PM
I just knew this comment would be here, though it could have been a handful of users. Jlo was top of the list though. I guess the whole integrated ecosystem still isn't enough to convince some people not to fuck with it. Damn the possible collapse, full profits ahead!!