Deep-sea mining: assessing evidence on future needs and environmental impacts

The lack of a consensus on what constitutes ‘serious harm’ and the current lack of quantitative thresholds limits the ability of ISA to effectively protect the marine environment and supports the current position of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and several Member States in advocating a moratorium until ecological consequences can be properly understood, measured and controlled. [...] SMS mining can be expected to affect smaller areas of the seabed (owing to the depth of the ore) and may have smaller plumes where the SMS substrate is harder than the soft muds of the nodule-rich areas. [...] Impact the Law of the Sea, where benefits from deep-seabed minimisation is constrained by the lack of physical mining must accrue to the international community at boundaries in the marine environment, in contrast to large, as part of the common heritage of humankind. [...] (2018) on the applicant to show that their activities will not suggest that the use of shrouds on collecting and harm the environment, and regulation is the main tool cutting systems and the development of methods to to determine the level of ‘acceptable’ biodiversity loss reduce the creation of fine particulate materials might in the deep sea. [...] in the marine environment determined according to • Maintain the ability of populations to replace the rules, regulations and procedures adopted by the themselves, including ensuring population connectivity Authority, on the basis of Internationally Recognized and the preservation of suitable habitat.