Deep-sea mining poses significant risks for a vital, hidden part of the ocean. That’s the message from a new University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa study, the first to truly look at the impact of mining waste.
Deep-sea mining poses significant risks for a vital, hidden part of the ocean. That’s the message from a new University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa study, the first to truly look at the impact of mining waste. Researchers found that more than half of the tiny animals, zooplankton, forming the ocean’s food building blocks in the “twilight zone” (a vital region 200–1,500 meters below sea level) could be harmed, risking bigger creatures further up the food web.
Researchers discovered that waste discharged from deep-sea mining operations in the Pacific’s biodiverse Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) could disrupt marine life in the midwater twilight zone. The study finds that 53% of all zooplankton and 60% of micronekton, which feed on zooplankton, would be impacted by the discharge of the mining waste, which could ultimately impact predators higher up on the food web.
Read More at: University of Hawaii
Zooplankton from the eastern CCZ. (Photo Credit: Goetze, Ellis, Cazares)
