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An Industrial Test at 4,300 Meters in the Pacific Used a Machine to Collect Polymetallic Nodules and Recorded a 32% Drop in Species Diversity, Raising Concerns That Deep-Sea Mining Could Leave Scars for Decades
Deep-sea mining could be on the verge of becoming “the next big environmental mistake” — and a real test on the Pacific floor has just put numbers to the warning.
Imagine a machine the size of a truck working at 4,300 meters deep, in total darkness, sucking up from the sediment rocks rich in metals used in the energy transition. It sounds like science fiction — but it actually happened. And what appeared after the test left researchers on high alert.
An industrial trial conducted in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific (between Mexico and Hawaii) provided one of the first quantitative measurements of what happens when a “commercial-scale” mining operation takes action in the deep ocean. The most striking result: species diversity dropped by about 32% within the tracks left by the machine.
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Geologists find traces of a continent that disappeared 155 million years ago after separating from Australia and reveal that it did not sink, but broke into fragments scattered across Southeast Asia.
And this, according to scientists, is just the beginning of the story.
What Was Tested Exactly?
The study was conducted by an international consortium led by researchers from the Natural History Museum in London. They monitored, for five years, the changes in deep-sea life before and after the use of an industrial collector that removed polymetallic nodules — formations rich in metals such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese.
In just a few hours of operation, the machine removed approximately 3,300 tons of these nodules.
To separate the real impact from what would be “natural variation” in the ecosystem, researchers applied a statistical method considered gold standard in environmental studies, comparing affected areas and nearby control areas at different times.
What They Found in the Sediment
b, Summary of the samples collected at each site during each period, with the numbers indicating the number of box corer samples/total number of macrofauna individuals.
c–e, Examples of photographs of the seabed at each level of impact: unimpacted seabed (c); mining trails (d); and area impacted by the sediment plume (e).
In the laboratories, more than 4,300 organisms (larger than 0.25 mm) were identified, grouped into 788 species — from worms and small crustaceans to mollusks buried in the upper layer of the seabed.
This layer is precisely the one that the machine disturbs while sucking up the nodules.
Within the tracks opened by the equipment:
- Diversity dropped by around 32%
- The density of animals also significantly decreased
And even where the machine did not “pass over,” the cloud of sediment raised by the activity was already enough to alter which species dominated that environment.
The Detail That Left Scientists Even More Concerned
The study also recorded poorly known fauna — including a solitary coral attached to the nodules, described as a new species for science, along with small sea spiders and other rarely collected groups.
And here comes the critical point: many species appear in irregular patterns, over scales of a few meters. That is, the abyssal seabed may be much richer and more fragmented than current maps suggest — making any attempt at “restoration” even less likely after the nodules are removed.
The Scars Could Last Decades
Even without mining, researchers observed natural changes in community composition over time — likely linked to the amount of organic matter coming from the surface.
But comparisons with historical disturbance tests in other oceanic regions show a scary fact: The physical scars of the machinery remain visible decades later. And while some mobile groups may return, others simply do not come back, not even in the medium term.
Why Is This Becoming a Global Debate Now?
The study comes at a time when the International Seabed Authority (affiliated with the UN) is negotiating rules that could allow — or curb — commercial mining in international waters. For years, a “Mining Code” has been discussed with environmental standards, requirements for impact studies, and monitoring of recovery.
The problem is that polymetallic nodules grow millimeters over millions of years. In practice, removing these nodules does not just mean removing “a mineral”: it is eliminating a non-renewable resource on a human scale and also the physical support for much of the local life.
Moratorium: The Word Growing Among Scientists
That is why an increasingly large part of the scientific community advocates for a global moratorium, at least until sufficient information is available about accumulated impacts and ecological limits which, once exceeded, can make the damage irreversible.
Recent studies argue that any rules should impose maximum limits on biodiversity loss and habitat alteration — below which recovery would still be possible.
What Happens Now?
Submarine mining directly intersects with two issues that already dominate international negotiations: biodiversity crisis and climate change, along with the advancement of treaties to expand marine protected areas in the high seas.
While governments, scientific organizations, and NGOs push for safeguards, other countries and companies see these resources as a strategic piece for the energy transition economy.
But with real data from the seabed in hand, the increasingly difficult question to ignore is:
Is the planet ready to open this new frontier — or are we about to repeat, on an unprecedented scale, a mistake that cannot be undone?
(The study was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution*.)*
A desculpa de que é necessário sempre vem na, mais na real do que necessitamos mesmo pra sobreviver
A imbecilidade e ganância humana acelerando sua própria extinção..
O ser humano. Sempre foi e sempre sera ganancioso …e terrivelmente destrutivo em nome do progresso. !..se continuar a destruir o planeta na escala atual com toda certeza a cobrança virá…. Eu me pergunto como pode um ser tão insignificante tao pequeno Como o homem, destruir a perfeiçao ,e grandeza deixadas pelo nosso criador o SENHOR DEUS…..