It is completely dark, just above freezing cold and the pressure is crushing: this is the deep-sea floor. Food is very scarce in this huge region, yet a great diversity of animals have adapted to exploit and recycle resources and thrive within it.

As technology enabled us to penetrate deeper into the ocean in the past 50 years, we discovered extraordinary ecosystems: hydrothermal vents support lush communities of unique animals, seamounts foster coral and sponge forests and abyssal plains continue to yield biodiversity novelties.

Metal-rich ores were also discovered in these same environments — and in quantities that sparked commercial interest. These deposits are now the targets for exploitation by mining companies both within and beyond national waters.

A tongue fish hovering over a sulfur-encrusted area with white crabs seen below. Photo: NOAA Vents Program / Flickr

Canada is a member of the International Seabed Authority, which is developing mineral exploitation regulations for the deep sea. It shares responsibility in the potential environmental impacts of the deep-sea mining industry.

Our research teams study deep-sea ecosystems in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. We also engage in marine conservation efforts and are strong advocates for scientific input for informed decision making. To this end, we work with an international team of scientists, the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative, to provide advice to those involved in developing the environmental regulations for the deep-sea mining code.

The mineral resources

Deep-sea mining is targeting three types of deposits all of which are formed over thousands to millions of years. Polymetallic nodules — potato-sized structures rich in manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt, and containing platinum and tellurium — form at depths of 4,000-6,000 metres, as metals precipitate from seawater. At hydrothermal vents, black smokers discharge hot (350 C), metal-rich fluids that can accumulate to form deposits containing copper and often gold, silver, zinc and lead. Crusts form on the slopes of some seamounts that are rich in cobalt, manganese, iron, copper, nickel and platinum.

We need such metals for everything from cell phones to aircraft engines. Indeed, any move to alternative energy sources must consider metal supply and the security of the supply chain. A current challenge for many countries is the negotiation of those supplies from terrestrial sources.

Several deep-water sea fans (Plumarella pellucida) photographed with a basket star at 150 metres. Photo: NOAA’s National Ocean Service / Flickr

Deep-sea mining has not begun yet on a commercial scale, but companies are developing the required technologies. The machines will collect the nodules or grind the hot vent and seamount deposits, and lift the slurry to vessel at the ocean surface.

The impact goes beyond the physical removal of the sea floor. Ships would release large plumes of particles or dump waste material into the ocean, which could have toxic effects on animals, and produce light and noise pollution.

What’s at stake

Scientists have explored less than one per cent of the deep sea. We know neither the extent of the habitats targeted by mining nor how the ecosystems will respond to it. Most of the species that live on the seafloor remain unknown to science, as do their lifestyles, interactions and ecological roles. Developing strategies to protect them is a major challenge.

We do know that many deep-sea species are particularly vulnerable to the destruction of habitat by deep-sea mining. They grow slowly, live for decades or even centuries and reproduce late in life. If ecosystems are destroyed, they take a long time to recover; recent studies found that ecosystems on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean had not recovered from experimental nodule mining after nearly 30 years.

The deep ocean provides us with many services, including storing carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. It also contains a large repository of genetic material of potential value. Benefits reaped from this material belong to humankind rather to a particular company or nation. However, the regulation, management and benefit sharing of the genetic resources are still under debate.

Deep-sea mining will impact these remote, poorly known, resource-rich ecosystems in ways that we cannot yet predict. This lack of knowledge is a major impediment for developing strategies for sustainable use and conservation of deep-sea habitats.

Environmental leadership

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is an organization of member states that have signed the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The ISA is writing the mining code to regulate mineral exploitation in the international seabed area. ISA has signed 29 contracts with mining companies (each with state backing) to explore vast areas of the seabed, covering a total of 1.3 million square kilometres (an area greater than Ontario).

White crabs, tube worms and a few tonguefish. Photo: NOAA Vents Program / Flickr

As a UNCLOS signatory, Canada has an opportunity and indeed responsibility to provide meaningful feedback on the mining code. Scientists, managers, lawyers and others at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Natural Resources Canada have the expertise to participate in the national delegation to the ISA meetings.

These Canadian government agencies have long considered topics such as ecosystem-based management, environmental impact assessments, marine protected areas and the “polluter pays” approach that are being hotly debated at the ISA. Canada’s experience in legislating and implementing some of these topics can inform the process and provide background and context in the decision-making.

Canada’s aspiring goals of global environmental leadership beyond our own continental shelf should provide the incentive to ensure that if deep-sea mining proceeds, it is in an environmentally sustainable manner.

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Until recently, the largest ecosystem on earth has stayed mostly beyond human reach.

But a new chapter in resource extraction could open up Earth’s most remote places to industrial development.

The deep sea, broadly considered the area of ocean below 200 metres, encompasses half of the world’s total ocean estate. To this day, just 5 per cent of the ocean abyss has been explored. It is only in the last decade that major advances in ocean-exploring technology, growing demand for metals used for tech gadgets, and the diminishing availability of these metals on land has created the burgeoning industry of deep sea mining.

This year, Canadian-registered company Nautilus Minerals Inc. is slated to begin Solwara 1, an operation in Papua New Guinea that will extract seafloor massive sulphides from hydrothermal vent ecosystems in the deep sea. Each year, this operation plans to extract 1.3 million tonnes of vent and seabed material high in copper, zinc, gold and silver.

Extraction requires a process of directly drilling, removing, and flattening down the vents and chimneys, essentially leaving a pile of rubble in its place.

“All deep sea mining removes material from the seafloor,” says Dr. Kirsten Thompson, a marine mammal scientist and ecology lecturer at the University of Exeter in Devon, United Kingdom. “In removing this material, the habitat and species that are associated with the ecosystem are destroyed.”

“For some types of mining, this destruction is irreversible on a local scale and recovery is not expected within our lifetimes,” says Thompson.

Oases of the ocean deep

Mineral rich regions in the deep sea are also rich in ocean life. According to Dr. Thompson, hydrothermal vents and seamounts provide critical habitat for marine animals.

Vents are cracks in the ocean floor that spew heated water and nutrients into the frigid deep sea.

“Hydrothermal vents are ecosystems where species are uniquely adapted for extreme conditions,” says Thompson. “Research suggests that 85 per cent of vent species are found in no other ecosystem and there are many new species being discovered as research progresses.”

Seamounts are vast ranges of underwater mountains that rise from the ocean abyss, often bringing upwellings of nutrients that support a diversity of marine life.

A close-up view of a crab observed at a depth of 2227 metres in the Mothra hydrothermal vent field, 21 May 2014. Photo: Ocean Network Canada

Tubeworms cover the exterior of the Grotta hydrothermal vent. Photo: Ocean Network Canada

The Chimney hydrothermal vent, located in the Endeavour region. Photo: Ocean Network Canada

In some cases, “seamounts provide habitat for a high diversity of corals, anemones and feather stars, as well as fish,” says Thompson. “Large mobile marine species, such as whales and sharks, are known to gather over seamounts, using them as foraging or resting areas.”

Like their counterparts on land, these underwater oases are now being eyed for treasures beyond their ecological value.

Part of mining seamounts involves stripping their cobalt-rich crusts. This incredibly damaging process causes direct mortality to seabed organisms, and associated impacts up and down the marine food chain.

Likewise, the harvesting of manganese nodules removes fields of small metallic deposits, which take millions of years to form, removing mini-ecosystems that other seabed organisms rely on for habitat.

Before long, Canadian and international mining companies alike may start turning their attention towards Canadian waters — that is, if they haven’t already.

Canada’s Deepsea Oasis

The Offshore Pacific Area of Interest off the west coast of Vancouver Island is of particular concern to conservationists.

This massive 139,700 square kilometre area has been proposed as a federal marine protected area, but does not yet have protections from future mining interests.

Location of a proposed Marine Protected Area, known as the ‘Deepsea Oasis,’ off the coast of Vancouver Island. Should the area become protected that would not necessairly exclude the possibility of deep-sea mining from occurring in this region. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Dubbed the “Deepsea Oasis” by ocean protection advocates, the offshore area contains several hydrothermal vents and 87 per cent of Canada’s seamounts.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society has been working to ensure protections for the area address a range of threats, including shipping traffic, commercial fishing, and the potential for deep sea mining.

Despite the implications of the term, marine protected areas often allow for a variety of industrial activities to continue. When these activities overlap with vital ocean habitat, the results can be disastrous.

Conservationists and scientists are fighting to improve standards for ocean protection, but the federal government is moving slowly to adopt adequate minimum standards.

Playing catch-up

While mining companies like Nautilus are forging ahead with plans for major extractive operations, the science community is rushing to catch up.

Even preliminary studies are revealing incredible discoveries: the world’s most heat-tolerant microbe, with the ability to survive in over 121°C; ancient glass sponge reefs, which filter and clean vast amounts of water; and carbon-storing vents that may play a role in climate regulation.

Discoveries such as these could have vast applications to medicine, pharmaceuticals, disease prevention, genetic resources, and the advancement of scientific understanding.

Much of the world’s mining resources are found in the High Seas, an area outside of national jurisdiction, managed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). The ISA has granted 29 licenses for mineral exploration without the existence of international guidelines on deep sea mining.

Canada has the world’s largest coastline and holds some of the global ocean’s most valuable deep sea ecosystems.

Jellyfish at depth 892m in Barkley Canyon, Pacific Coast near Vancouver Island. Photo: Ocean Networks Canada

Before mining companies step in, areas like the Deepsea Oasis need protection in the form of firm guidelines against mining activities within marine protected areas.

Otherwise, one of our last remaining strongholds for ocean life could fade into the void.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.