MINING THE ABYSS

Predicting the impacts of Deep-Sea Mining in the Pacific Ocean

Mining the Abyss is a visual investigation on deep-sea mining and accountability.

A speculative rush is underway to exploit deep seabed minerals – cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese – allegedly needed for the green shift, led by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a handful of states, mining startups, frontier investors and research universities. 

The deep ocean poses formidable challenges for its spatial and visual representation, which the mining industry exploits by claiming its mining operations will be environmentally friendly. To counter the mining industry’s greenwashing, INTERPRT analyzed data shared by marine biologists to simulate mining footprints and then collaborated with an oceanographer to model the trajectory of plume particles from seabed mining in the CCZ. INTERPRT designed the results using 3D modeling software to create a multimedia advocacy tool.

Blue Peril – our advocacy video – produced in collaboration with Deep Sea Mining Campaign and Ozeanien Dialog in cooperation with Pacific civil society organizations fighting to stop deep sea mining, was launched in an official side event of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon.

Blue Peril presents a scientifically robust and disturbing picture of far-reaching future impacts of deep-sea mining for Pacific Ocean ecosystems, habitat and Pacific Island communities. It highlights the serious implications for Pacific Island economies and way of life – with Hawaii and Kiribati predicted to be in the firing line. Focusing on the Tonga and Nauru sponsored license areas of The Metals Company (TMC) in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), Blue Peril incorporates the best publicly available data into internationally accredited oceanographic and spatial imagery programs. Blue Peril is accompanied by technical notes.

Mining the abyss demonstrates – for the first time – the vast area of the Pacific expected to be impacted by deep-sea mining and the devastation that deep seabed mining could bring to marine ecosystems and habitats.