Future of deep-sea mining stands at a crucial juncture

Aside from the unknown species that would be wiped out, and the vast amount of pollution that would be caused (underwater PM2.5, getting into everything that people eat from the ocean), this would stir up a huge amount of dead and diseased matter, loaded with pathogens. Covid would have nothing on that.

We should learn from the destruction we have wreaked and long term problems we have caused everywhere else and leave the seabed alone. Humanity is like a serial abuser who just enjoys it too much to stop.

At the very least, begin a register of all those involved in this, so when it causes problems, they can all be locked up for it, for the rest of their lives.

Their warnings gained strength this year with the surprise discovery that oxygen was being released on the ocean floor not just by living organisms, but by polymetallic nodules -- a finding rejected by the TMC, though it had helped fund the research.

That recent discovery is what causes me the greatest concern. Research on the effects of nodule removal from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean shows that post removal, life does not fully return to the zone. Subsequently it is discovered that the nodules themselves emit oxygen that life needs to return. I don't think we know enough to safely remove large volumes of these nodules from the world's oceans.