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Ancient glass sponges. Barbie-pink porpoise floating along the seabed. A transparent unicumber hovering in the depths.
These wonders are just the first glimpse of amazing creatures discovered 1,640 miles (5,000 meters) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a sparse area earmarked as a site for deep-sea mining of critical and rare metals. Natural resources are in high demand for use in solar panels, electric car batteries and other green technologies, among other uses.
The 45-day expedition to the Clarion-Clipperton Belt, which returned on March 20, documented biodiversity in the abyssal plain. Using a remotely operated vehicle, the team on board the UK research ship James Cook photographed the deep sea life and took samples for future study.
“We can assume that many of these species will be new to science. Sometimes they have been seen / observed / reported before, but never been collected or formally described,” said Regen Drennan, a postdoctoral marine biologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
“These specimens will be taken to the NHM London to be identified and studied for years to come.”
The expedition was the second by a UK initiative called the Seabed Mining and Resilience to Experimental Impacts project, or SMARTEX, involving the Natural History Museum, the National Oceanography Centre, the British Geological Survey and other institutions.
The US Geological Survey estimates that there are 21.1 billion dry tons of polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Belt – containing more reserves of the critical metal than the world’s land-based reserves combined.
If deep-sea mining follows the same path as offshore oil production, more than one-third of these critical metals will come from deep-sea mines by 2065, according to the federal agency.
Scientists believe that many of the life forms that make this environment their home are unlikely to survive after the nodules are removed and are looking for safeguards, according to the Natural History Museum.
Weighing biodiversity and industry
In international waters, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone is outside the jurisdiction of any one country. The International Seabed Authority, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, has issued 17 exploration contracts. However, many countries, including the United Kingdom and France, have expressed caution, supporting a moratorium or ban on deep-sea mining to protect marine ecosystems and preserve biodiversity.
Between 6,000 and 8,000 species could be waiting to be discovered in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, according to a June 2023 study published in the journal Current Biology.
The pink amperima sea cucumber, known as the “Barbie Pig,” is one of the largest invertebrates that inhabit the deep sea floor. Along with the transparent unicumber, the creature is a type of porpoise within the scientific family known as Elpidiidae. The Barbie pig feeds on the small amounts of detritus that extend from surface waters to the seabed and are important in organic matter cycling, explained Drennan, who was not directly involved in the trip.
“Many species in this family have developed long, strong legs that allow them to walk across the sea floor, and elongated mouthparts to pick and choose the debris they eat,” Drennan said via email.
The expedition also captured images of elegant, cup-shaped glass sponges, which are believed to have the longest lifespan of any creature on the planet — up to 15,000 years, although the expedition team does not know how old the sponges are. they took. .
Sea anemones, close relatives of jellyfish, “fill the role of large sit-and-wait carnivores on the deep sea floor, catching small swimming animals in their tentacles,” she said.
Many of the life forms that live in these depths depend on the philometallic nodules, which gradually form through chemical processes that cause metals to emerge from water around shell fragments and shark teeth, according to Natural History Museum.
Researchers estimate that it takes about 1 million years for these nodules to grow just ten millimeters in size. The largest known nodules reach about 8 inches (20 centimeters) across, suggesting that these ocean floor environments have not changed much over thousands of years.
Critics say noise could disturb marine mammals such as whales and dolphins, and plumes of sediment, potentially toxic compounds kicked up by equipment on the seabed, could spread, damaging mid-water ecosystems, according to recent research.
It is also possible, warn the scientists, that deep-sea mining could affect the way carbon is stored in the ocean, contributing to the climate crisis.
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