Context: Recently, a study suggested that commercial-scale Deep seabed mining operations can potentially harm the oceans and endangered species, such as cetaceans including blue whales and several dolphin species.

• The evaluation emphasizes the need for continued conservation efforts to protect these species.

Deep Sea Mining

• Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep seabed the ocean below 200 metres and covers two-thirds of the total seafloor.

• According to International Seabed Authority (ISA), an agency under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for monitoring all activities related to mineral resources in the deep sea, the international seabed is the area that lies beyond the limits of national jurisdiction and represents around 50% of the total area of the world’s oceans.

• ISA has issued 32 contracts to explore deep sea mineral deposits. More than 1.5 million square kilometres of the international seabed have been set aside for mineral exploration.

Governance

• ISA is required by UNCLOS to put in place the governance infrastructure including rules, regulations and procedures governing the contours of deep-sea mining within 2 years.

• In case of failure, the ISA must at least evaluate the mining proposal by the end of two years.

• The 11th Annual Deep Sea Mining Summit 2023 is to be held in London, United Kingdom. Agenda includes the “economic landscape and growth for deep sea mining and technological developments associated with commercialising”.

Reasons for Growing Interest

• Depleting Terrestrial Deposits: Depleting stocks of metals such as copper, nickel, aluminium, manganese, zinc, lithium and cobalt caused shift in focus towards Deep Sea Deposits.

• Mineral resources are extracted from Polymetallic nodules found in various deep ocean regions including deep pacific and Indian oceans.

• The nodules are approximately potato-sized and sit on the sediment surface across abyssal plains in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a region spanning 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) across the central Pacific Ocean at depths of 4,000 - 5,500 metres.

• Increasing Demand: Demand for these metals is also increasing to produce smartphones, wind turbines, solar panels and batteries.

Threats

• Commercial-scale mining is expected to operate 24 hours a day, causing noise pollution.

• It can overlap with the frequencies at which cetaceans communicate, which can cause auditory masking and behaviour change in marine mammals.

• Settlement of sediment plumes generated by mining vehicles could harm/kill the species at the bottom of the ocean (benthic species) in the vicinity.

• Sediment discharged from processing vessels can also increase turbidity in the water column. Also, far from sight impacts could go largely unquantified.

India’s Deep Ocean Mission

• Deep Ocean Mission seeks to develop the technologies required for exploring and then, extracting minerals in the deep seabed.

• Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) will be the nodal Ministry implementing this multi-institutional ambitious mission.

• It would develop a manned submersible (MATSYA 6000) that can carry three people to a depth of 6,000 meters in the ocean with a suite of scientific sensors and tools.

• It will pursue technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity through "bioprospecting of deep-sea flora and fauna and studies on sustainable utilization of deep-sea bio-resources.

• The mission will seek to explore the prospects of deriving energy and freshwater from the ocean through "studies and detailed engineering design for offshore ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)-powered desalination plants.