Story | 18 Jun, 2024

Investing for Ocean Impact podcast, Season 3: Deep Sea Mining

The ocean’s seabed harbours a range of mineral reserves containing valuable metals and compounds. But under international law these resources have been designated “the common heritage of mankind”, a designation backed up by the body responsible for both preserving and allowing their use, the International Seabed Authority. Today, for the first time, this body is being seriously tested: some companies are saying they are ready to mine the deep sea and are demanding to do so. We look to separate rhetoric from reality as our host, BBC science journalist Phil Sansom, dives into this important, and currently debated subject.

Episode 1 is out today, available through the links below.

Photo: NOAA - DB Philanthropies - IUCN

What is deep sea mining? And what should the world do about it?

In a three-part miniseries format, Season 3 attempts to unlock the saltwater secrets of Deep Sea Mining through interviews with six distinguished guests. We explore the facts and evidence around deep sea mining, and cover the growing case for a moratorium on the practice.

Our expert guests range from the top level of government and policy-making through to industry, economics, international law and of course, science.

Episode 1: Deep Sea Mining – Explained

Join our first two guests, as they take us and host Phil on a journey exploring the background and sensitivities of any proposed mining of the deep sea.

Dr Diva Amon, leading marine biologist and scientific advisor at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Pradeep Singh, Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability at Helmholtz Center Potsdam, a legal expert on ocean governance and the law of the sea.

They discuss how we got to where we are today what the issues are by overviewing the history, simply explaining the legal framework surrounding any potential exploitation of the international seabed, and revealing recent developments in science. All of this provides context to the discussions, negotiations and positions on this important subject, currently being debated by the only body that is able to regulate the seabed outside national waters, the International Seabed Authority.