Today, many private corporations in the renewable energy sector still view deep-sea mining as an alternative solution to the world’s energy crisis. However, environmentalists are arguing otherwise, highlighting its deep and long-lasting environmental threats to deep-sea ecosystems (Dacey, 2020), with one of the most prominent ones being underwater noise pollution.
So, what are some measures that have been taken by international organisations to tackle this environmental problem, and are they effective?
Let’s take a look at the existing measures implemented by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an autonomous intergovernmental organisation established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (International Seabed Authority, 2022).
Comprising of the European Union and 167 Member States, ISA is responsible for the management, organisation, and regulation of all mineral-related activities (including deep-sea mining) in the global seafloor area (International Seabed Authority, 2022). As such, ISA has the obligation to ensure the protection of marine environments from deep-sea mining-related noise pollution (OceanCare, 2021).
While ISA recognises noise as a harmful pollutant to marine life, its regulations do not seem to suggest so. For instance, ISA’s “Mining Code” which consists of a set of rules governing the exploration of minerals such as polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts does not have provisions that particularly address underwater noise (OceanCare, 2021).
Furthermore, acoustic exploration methods, despite being known to produce underwater noise that is detrimental to marine life, were not considered by ISA as one of the activities that required an environmental impact assessment (OceanCare, 2021).
Many of its guidelines, such as those that cover the environmental impact assessment process and establishment of baseline environmental data are also non-mandatory and in their drafting stages (OceanCare, 2021). Without binding regulations in place, these guidelines are merely optional suggestions that deep-sea miners can overlook.
Moving forward, there definitely needs to be greater urgency in the finalisation and enforcement of legally binding guidelines to better watchdog and control the extent and magnitude of deep-sea mining activities conducted by commercial mining companies and countries.
Mandatory noise limits, noise budgeting, and noise impact assessments along with the evaluation of other alternative technologies and activities can be conducted to promote more sustainable modes of resource extraction (OceanCare, 2021).
References:
Dacey, J. (2020). Deep-Sea Mining May Have Deep Economic, Environmental Impacts – Eos. Retrieved 1 March 2022, from https://eos.org/articles/deep-sea-mining-may-have-deep-economic-environmental-impacts
International Seabed Authority. (2022). International Seabed Authority. Retrieved 1 March 2022, from https://www.isa.org.jm/
OceanCare (2021). Deep-Sea Mining: A noisy affair. Retrieved 26 February 2022, from https://www.oceancare.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/DeepSeaMining_a-noisy-affair_report_OceanCare_2021.pdf