Elon Musk’s call for miners to dig more nickel for Tesla’s batteries faces its biggest test in Indonesia, where companies in the world’s top producing nation are planning to dump millions of tonnes of waste into the sea. Mr Musk said on an earnings call last month that Tesla would give a “giant contract” to companies that could mine nickel “efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,” in response to a question about the biggest constraint on the electric car maker he runs.
Sunlight does not reach the deepest parts of the ocean, but life still thrives in the darkness. Below depths of 200 meters, where sunlight cannot reach, some organisms eat organic material that falls from the sunlit zone. For these organisms, photosynthetic organisms, such as phytoplankton and algae, form the basis of the food web. Other deep-sea organisms depend on a process called chemosynthesis, which is growth using energy from chemical reactions, rather than from the sun, as in photosynthesis.
For the last 33,000 years Earth has been travelling through a cloud of faintly radioactive dust from supernovae explosions—and the evidence is in our planet’s oceans, according to a new paper.
An international team of marine biologists has described two new species of the polychaete worm genus Melinnopsis from deep waters off the east coast of Australia.
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has been sent back to the Environmental Protection Authority if it wants to make a third attempt to mine iron-sand from the South Taranaki seabed.
The Court of Appeal today dismissed TTR’s appeal against a High Court judgment quashing its mining consents.
Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM) and Greenpeace today hailed the decision by the New Zealand Court of Appeal denying Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) permission to mine the South Taranaki Bight as a victory for the oceans.
The Court of Appeal confirmed today that the proposed seabed mining operation that would dredge a 66 square kilometre section of the seabed off the coast of Patea for ironsands, does not meet numerous environmental and Treaty of Waitangi principles and therefore could not go ahead.
A blue whale feeds in the South Taranaki Bight (Photo: Oregon State University)
“This sends a powerful message that New Zealand waters are not open for pillage by seabed miners. We doubt very much that any future investor would now have the appetite for throwing money at what is clearly a lost cause,” said Cindy Baxter, chairperson of Kiwis Against Seabed Mining.
“This sends a powerful message that New Zealand waters are not open for pillage by seabed miners. We doubt very much that any future investor would now have the appetite for throwing money at what is clearly a lost cause”
“This three-year process has been a long, drawn-out battle, underlining the need for a ban on seabed mining. This is the third New Zealand application and again the seabed miners have lost, at enormous expense to local communities, iwi, environmental groups and industry,” she said.
Jessica Desmond, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace, says now is not the time for further exploiting our oceans.
“We have to step back and recognise that seabed mining is simply too destructive to go ahead. We don’t know enough about our fragile marine environment and what mining could do – but the science shows the impacts would be negative,” she says.
“This particular mining operation would put endangered Hector’s dolphins, blue whales, seabirds, and coral life at risk. It’s a risk we cannot afford.
“Our oceans perform a myriad of vital services to humanity – from feeding communities to providing breakthroughs in medical science. It is high time we protected them from harmful activities.
“This seabed mine would have set a very bad precedent for other companies waiting in the wings. Today’s decision will be felt across the Pacific where communities are fighting other similarly damaging huge seabed mining projects.”
Just last month, the UK Government committed to not sponsor nor support the issuing of any exploitation licences for deep sea mining projects until there is sufficient scientific evidence about the potential impact on deep sea ecosystems. They also want to see strong and enforceable environmental standards in place before any mining could go ahead.
Prominent environmentalist Sir David Attenborough has also warned of potential irreversible harm that could be done through seabed mining.
Today’s decision upholds a High Court decision last year that quashed the EPA consent granted to TTR.
The Appeal Court decision also upheld several important points of law the groups had cross-appealed on, as the High Court had rejected these arguments.
These included: including the relevance of international law, the meaning of the legislation regulating New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone, its object and purpose, the precautionary principle, the relevance of the Resource Management Act regime, and a financial bond to ensure future environmental harms can be addressed.
Other possible seabed mining bids could come from companies holding either mining or exploration permits off New Plymouth, Waihi Beach, and the Chatham Rise – where Chatham Rock Phosphate has already failed in its first attempt, and has been telling investors it is waiting for this decision to be resolved before it reapplies.
Deb Ngarewa-Packer, Kaiarataki at Te Runanga o Ngati Ruanui from Aotearoa (New Zealand) shared this emotional video message to let everyone know that they have won the case against seabed mining in their waters in Aotearoa. This is a big win which could mean seabed mining in Aotearoa (New Zealand) won’t simply not be possible in NZ under this decision.
New regulations for essential fish habitat off the West Coast of the United States that go into effect in 2020 will extend protections for deep-sea habitats and corals while reopening fishing grounds where fish populations have rebounded.
