Posted above is 4,000 meters below sea level in Central Pacific. This particular area is being explored by several mining companies to assess rich deposits. It has been said that it has a lot of ores which are needed to keep the industry humming and mobile phones working.
Environmentalists and scientists warned that underwater mining could possibly lead to death of marine life. Marine life has all been at risks because of excessive fishing, industrial waste and climate change. Are we going to impose an additional risk factor to them through marine mining?
According to studies, what may be acquired underwater could be 10 times greater than what has been acquired on the land since time immemorial, thus, attracting several companies to explore possible essential metals in spite of probable harm to marine life.
“It’s like a land grab,” said Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer and explorer-in-residence for National Geographic. “It’s a handful of individuals who are giving away or letting disproportionate special interests have access to large parts of the planet that just happen to be under water.”
Lockheed Martin from Britain is leading the exploration. But there are also mining companies from Russia, China, Japan and South Korea are setting up their project of exploration, too.
Craig Smith, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii who served as an adviser to the International Seabed Authority said “It is going to damage vast areas of the sea floor. I just don’t see any way
[in] mining one of these claims that whole areas won’t be heavily damaged.”