Overview
- Published Nov. 6 in Nature Communications, the University of Hawai‘i–led study used samples from a 2022 The Metals Company trial in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and found plume particles were 10–100 times lower in amino-acid content than natural food.
- Researchers estimate roughly 53% of zooplankton and 60% of micronekton in the midwater would encounter nutritionally poor particles, a bottom-up risk that could extend to commercially important fish such as tuna, mahi-mahi and swordfish.
- The Metals Company funded and cooperated with the research and says it plans to release waste at about 2,000 meters, claiming rapid dilution and fewer zooplankton there, while study authors warn deeper discharge still threatens resident communities and remains poorly studied.
- International rules on discharge depth and plume management are unsettled as the International Seabed Authority finalizes a mining code, while the U.S. advances a fast-track permitting push through a Trump executive order and a NOAA draft rule now at the White House.
- More than 900 ocean scientists and policy experts urge a moratorium until risks are better understood, and study authors highlight recycling and evolving battery chemistries as ways to reduce demand for seabed minerals.