Above photo: A jelly, Crossota millsae, in deep waters off the Southeastern United States. Credit: NOAA.
‘Irreversible Damage:” The international conservation group Flora & Fauna has released a report on its research into the environmental effects of seabed mining. The negative impacts, it found, “are likely to be extensive and irreversible. Once lost, deep-sea biodiversity will be impossible to restore.”
“The research analysed in our report clearly demonstrates that it remains premature for deep-seabed mining to proceed and, in the absence of any suitable, proven impact-avoidance or mitigation techniques, we are calling for it to be avoided entirely,” the group stated.
Authors Nicky Jenner, Sophie Benbow, Catherine Weller, and Pippa Howard go on to say their work “showcases compelling evidence that deep-seabed mining, through disturbance of marine sediment carbon stores and disruption of carbon cycling and storage processes, could contribute to the climate crisis.”
Their full report may be found here: https://www.fauna-flora.org/app/uploads/2023/03/fauna-flora-deep-sea-mining-update-report-march-23.pdf.
Bias at the ISA: The head of the International Seabed Authority, the international body that is supposed to regulate seabed mining, has come under fire from diplomats from a number of member nations. According to The New York Times, they accuse Michael Lodge of pushing them to accelerate the start of commercial-scale seabed mining.
The criticism of Lodge, The Times reported on March 19, “comes as the diplomats struggle to decide how to respond when the authority receives an application for commercial seabed mining in international waters, which is expected to happen later this year.” The application is expected to come from the tiny island nation of Nauru, in partnership with The Metals Company. The area proposed for exploration lies within the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, lying between Hawaiʻi and Mexico.
The ISA has still not agreed on rules to regulate the process.
Lodge, The Times notes, “has in the past mocked concerns about potential environmental harm, arguing that ocean mining is no more damaging than the same activity performed for centuries on land.”
Tummons Wins Award: The Big Island Press Club has awarded Environment Hawaiʻi editor Patricia Tummons its first-ever Oʻo Award. The award, says BIPC, is “for a journalist or public affairs representative who has dug especially deeply and unearthed information that creates ground-breaking news.”
The club goes on to say the award was for a series of articles in which Tummons “exposed questionable dealings in Hawaiʻi County’s Office of Housing and Community Development that ultimately led to an FBI investigation and guilty plea by former OHCD employee Alan Rudo to accepting almost $2 million in bribes.”
BIPC awarded its annual Torch of Light Award to Cindy Reeves, state director for the Journalism Education Association. Reeves is advisor to the McKinley High School student newspaper, The Pinion. Reeves, the press club stated, “was “the local driving force behind a national effort to shield student journalists from censorship.” She was instrumental in the passage of legislation last year that made Hawaiʻi the 16th state to join the student-led grassroots effort called the New Voices Movement.
BIPC awarded the ignominious Lava Tube award to former Governor David Ige, citing his veto of two public records bills. Ige is a two-time winner, having previously won in 2020.
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