NUUK—Oceans North Kalallit Nunaat (ONKN) is raising concerns about the Norwegian Government’s decision to open its waters for seabed mining exploration. The area Norway is looking to mine stretches from the south of Svalbard to south of Jan Mayen and extends to the very end of Norway’s continental shelf claim. “Pursuing these activities on Greenland’s doorstep could have serious consequences for the fish that our communities rely on,” says Jenseeraq Poulsen, ONKN’s Executive Director.
Deep-sea mining is an emerging, controversial industry that aims to extract minerals from the seabed. Many scientists, environmental groups, and states are opposed to it due to the potentially severe impacts it could have on the marine environment and the lack of knowledge we have about deep-sea ecosystems. However, Norway announced earlier this week that it would start deep-sea mining exploration in parts of the Arctic that it claims.
“The ocean doesn’t obey borders,” Poulsen explains. “We know that deep-sea mining in one place can have effects much further away.” Mining activities produce sediment plumes, which can travel large distances from the mine site and impact marine life. In fact, Norwegian scientists recently published a study showing that certain animals exposed to sediment exhibited signs of stress, with worrying implications for how deep-sea mining could affect not just the ecosystem, but also people who depend on the ocean for their livelihoods.
Additionally troubling is the fact that the impact assessment Norway conducted did not meet its own federal standards. Moreover, large sections of the proposed mining area are already designated as Especially Vulnerable and Valuable ecological areas. These are critical ecosystems that will not recover.
ONKN supports a moratorium on deep-sea mining until further research is done into these little-known ecosystems and the potential impacts mining could have on the marine environment, both locally and globally. “It is gambling with the living resources of the sea, which are an extremely important source of food and livelihood for humans. It is fundamentally wrong to start exploiting deep-sea minerals when the consequences are still unknown, especially considering that the European Parliament has called its member states to support a global moratorium on seabed mining,” Poulsen says. “We need to nurture and grow a sustainable, circular economy.”
For further information:
Jenseeraq Poulsen
Mobile: +299 48 34 67
E-mail: jenseeraq@oceansnorth.gl
