The Abyssal Paradox - An Evaluation of Deep Sea Mining

Written by Sihoon Yang

Edited by Moka Higashino

Introduction and the Green Transition Paradox

Four thousand meters deep into the waters of the Pacific Ocean is the Clarion-Clipperton

Zone, a zone without light where bioluminescent lifeforms hover above large patches of

potato-sized rocks (Hein et al. 158). These polymetallic nodules that have been formed

through millions of years contain deposits of nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese, which

are resources that will be used to power our switch to renewable energy in the future. This

scientific breakthrough has led to a moral paradox of our times of protecting our environment

on land from climate change while destroying the untouched environment beneath our

oceans. While supporters of deep sea mining claim it as a magical shortcut to becoming zero

emissions, they neglect the grave environmental risks that this techno-utopian view brings with it.

The Pro-Extraction Argument

In order to see why this initiative became so popular, it is important to mention the

restrictions related to renewable energy production. The transition to non-fossil sources of

energy will require an enormous amount of various critical minerals for the production of

electric cars, solar panels, and batteries. On land, the collection of such materials are very

harmful. The mining of nickel in Southeast Asia is connected to extensive tropical

deforestation and water pollution. Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is

well known for many human rights violations and dangerous working conditions (Jones et al.

102). Supporters of the abyssal plain mining suggest that it is much cleaner than traditional

land mining because there are no trees to destroy, no villages to relocate, and no local

workers to exploit. Moreover, nodules can be easily harvested due to the fact that they do not

have any roots and float freely in the sediment layer. Utilitarians would say that deep sea

mining has to happen for the sake of speeding up decarbonization as well.

Ecological impacts

This idea, however, of considering the abyssal plain an uninhabitable, sacrificial

wasteland disregards basic biology. Rather than being uninhabited, the deep ocean

floor supports vulnerable, slow-growing life forms that use these very metal nodules as

anchoring structures. Once large industrial crawlers drag along the ocean floor, the whole

habitat is destroyed. For example, in 1989, the German DISCOL disturbance experiment took

place in the Pacific Ocean, and when researchers revisited the area 26 years later, the traces

of the vehicles were still visible, with practically no recolonization by animals (Thiel et al.

3805). More recent collector experiments carried out in the Clarion Clipperton Zone have

demonstrated a decline in the number of animals by 37 percent and a decline in biodiversity

by 32 percent within one month after the disturbance occurred (Stewart et al. 415). Moreover,

it is not only the ocean floor that suffers; dredging leads to the creation of huge plumes of

sediment that travel several hundred kilometers, suffocating filter feeders and blocking the

view of creatures that depend on bioluminescence. Furthermore, industrial machinery

produces non-stop underwater sound that couples with the Sound Fixing and Ranging

(SOFAR) channel located at about 1,000 meters depth (Williams et al. 150).

Technological Evolution and Alternative Battery Chemistries

Even worse, the very foundation on which the idea of ocean mining is built is flawed,

as it assumes that battery technology will not advance. Mining corporations view nickel and cobalt as everlasting needs, but energy storage technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace. Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries, which contain no nickel or cobalt, comprised over 55 percent of all electric vehicles’ batteries sold worldwide in 2025 thanks to safety advantages and cheaper production costs (IEA). At the same time, Sodium-Ion technology becomes available in commercial scale production. Sodium is approximately 500 times more common in the Earth’s crust than lithium, and it may be extracted from water safely and sustainably without any harm to the ocean bed (CATL and IRENA). Leading battery manufacturers such as CATL have already developed sodium-ion batteries ready for production and capable of reaching energy density of 175Wh/kg and driving range of 500km (CATL and IRENA). The destruction of fragile, ancient environments in order to extract metals that battery chemistry may render obsolete within a decade is shortsighted.

Conclusion

Ultimately, industrial exploitation in the remaining untouched biome on Earth is an act of

human hubris rather than environmental advancement. In terms of UNCLOS, the international

seabed is considered the “Common Heritage of Mankind” (UNCLOS). Granting private

companies rights to exploit seafloor minerals for their own gain would set a morally

reprehensible precedent for the privatization of common ocean space at the cost of

environmental destruction forevermore. Sustainability cannot occur if we are willing to

sacrifice one part of the Earth in order to save another part. We should not convert the

seafloor into our latest sacrifice zone but instead pursue closed-loop battery

recycling processes and next-generation battery chemistries, improving resource efficiency

along the way. An international moratorium on deep sea mining is required to prevent our

efforts in saving Earth’s climate from destroying the ocean environment.

Works Cited

• CATL and IRENA. Sodium-Ion Batteries: Technology and Market Outlook. International

Renewable Energy Agency, 2025.

• Hein, James R., et al. "Deep-Ocean Polymetallic Nodules as a Resource for Critical

Materials." Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, vol. 1, 2020, pp. 158–169.

International Energy Agency (IEA). Global EV Outlook 2026: Electric Vehicle Batteries.

IEA, 2026.

• Jones, Daniel O. B., et al. "Assessing Mining Impacts and Biological Recovery in the Deep Sea." Nature, vol. 625, 2024, pp. 100–106.

• Stewart, Eva C. D., et al. "Macrofaunal Responses to Modern Industrial Collector Tests in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone." Nature Ecology & Evolution, vol. 8, 2024, pp. 412–420.

• Thiel, Hajo, et al. "The Large-Scale Environmental Impact Experiment DISCOL: Long-Term Disturbance and Recolonization in the Deep Sea." Deep-Sea Research Part II, vol. 48, 2001, pp. 3803–3827.

• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Agreement Relating to the

Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. United Nations, 1994.

• Williams, Rob, et al. "Noise from Deep-Sea Mining May Oceanwide Propagate via the SOFAR Channel." Science, vol. 377, no. 6602, 2022, pp. 150–152.