Recent News
A group of Democratic congressmen is renewing a legislative fight to push the United States to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by adding an amendment for a "sense of Congress" to the America COMPETES act.
[ More ]The Maritime Law Association of the United States, joined fully by the American Bar Association, emphatically urges the Biden Administration and the Senate to take immediate action to ratify both the Rotterdam Rules and UNCLOS and allow the U.S. to best address current and future global maritime issues.
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Almost two-thirds of the hundreds of mollusc species that live in the deep sea are at risk of extinction, according to a new study that rings another alarm bell over the impact on biodiversity of mining the seabed.
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The solutions to climate change—solar panels, windmills, electric cars—seem so blissfully clean and also within reach. Yet they also require vast amounts of minerals: cobalt, manganese, copper, nickel, and rare earths and meeting that demand will likely require reliance on deep seabed mining which has its own environmental risks and tradeoffs.
[ More ]The Metals Company, a mining interest based in Vancouver, is attempting to address the looming resource shortage for the key metals needed for electric cars by mining the deep seabed but environmentalists warn that there are still too many unknowns about the effects of these operations on the fragile seabed ecosystems.
[ More ]Environment officials and campaigners have called for a global moratorium on deep-sea mining and on issuing new exploration contracts unless marine ecosystems can be effectively protected.
[ More ]Polymetallic nodules coat fields of the ocean floor and are rich in critical minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles but marine and climate scientists warn that there is not enough data yet to determine if this would be the greener option.
[ More ]African countries, many of which are heavily reliant on mining, have criticised a move by the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru to fast-track international negotiations over deep-sea mining, an industry that could hurt their economies.
[ More ]Canadian startup DeepGreen is touting seabed mining as a green alternative to land-based mineral extraction but scientists warn that seabed mining could result in environmental damages “irreversible on multi-generational timescales.”
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The U.S. offshore wind industry has reached a point where states continue to one-up one another with ambitious goals for development with officials in seven states (Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia) having awarded contracts for projects that add up to more than 14,000 megawatts.energy. The problem is that the industry has been poised for a boom for a while now, with little to show for it.
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