The Trump Administration Is Racing to Launch the Deep-Sea Mining Industry, Despite Huge Risks and Broad Opposition - CleanTechnica

The Trump administration has aggressively pushed to fast-track the development of a deep-sea mining (DSM) industry in U.S. and international waters, despite significant environmental risks and widespread opposition. Early in his second term, President Trump issued directives to accelerate DSM activities, leading the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to initiate leasing processes for mining in areas offshore of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Pacific Ocean near Hawai‘i. This rapid advancement aims to exploit deep-sea mineral resources but threatens to cause extensive and potentially irreversible damage to fragile deep-sea habitats, including the destruction of seafloor ecosystems and the spread of sediment plumes over vast areas. The deep ocean is the largest and least-explored habitat on Earth, home to unique species such as the dumbo octopus and rich biodiversity supported by mineral-rich seamounts. These ecosystems have slow-growing organisms with limited capacity to recover from disturbances, making them especially vulnerable to mining impacts. Deep-sea environments also provide critical ecosystem services like