The peer-reviewed study, funded by Umweltstiftung Greenpeace, a foundation arm of the environmental organization, argues that more research is needed to assess the risk deep-sea mining could pose to large marine mammals, although researchers did not collect field data themselves.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA), a Jamaica-based United Nations body, may approve deep-sea mining for international waters as soon as this summer. Leaders in France, Fiji, Canada and Germany have voiced concerns about the practice.
Supporters of deep-sea mining say it would lessen the need for large mining operations on land, which are often unpopular with host communities. Detractors say far more research is needed to determine how deep sea mining could affect aquatic ecosystems.
The Metals Company Inc and others are pushing ahead with plans to extract these nodules from the Clarion Clipperton Zone, an ocean region in the northern Pacific where…
