Seabed mining is the hot-button political issue coming into the conference, said Susanna Fuller, a vice-president of Oceans North.
Canada is under increasing pressure to declare a moratorium on seabed mining just as federal leaders are set to host an international marine conservation summit.
The largest ecosystem on earth, oceans cover more than 70 per cent of the planet, but only five per cent of that area has been explored and charted by humans. They also play a huge role in mitigating the climate crisis but face a host of human-caused problems, such as warming waters, increased acidification and various types of pollution.
The science community is concerned deep-sea mining could result in the loss of unique and important species due to the destruction of their seafloor habitat even before they’ve been discovered. It’s urgent that Canada also join the tide of nations urging a precautionary pause to deep-sea mining and voicing concerns about the International Seabed Authority’s rush to develop mining regulations, which potentially could see mining permits issued as soon as 2024, she said.
Undercover footage from the latest deep-sea mining tests in the CCZ, conducted by Canadian mining outfit The Metals Company and its Swiss operating partner and shareholder AllSeas, showed wastewater sucked up from the seabed was dumped directly onto the sea’s surface. TMC said the video captured a minor event involving an overflow of seawater mixed with a small amount of sediment and rock fragments that contained no toxic levels of heavy metals and wouldn’t cause harm to the ocean environment.
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