The restoration of seabed after mining is impossible in the short term, say scientists – RTS.CH

Great seabed, among the last wild zones of the planet, are coveted by certain industrialists and states impatient to be able to exploit resources rich in strategic ores, in particular for the ecological transition.

First target: polymetallic nodules, kinds of pebbles the size of a potato, especially very present in the Clarion-Clipperton area (CCZ), a large expanse between Hawaii and Mexico, in the Pacific.

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If industrialists ensure that they can minimize the impact of their collection, organizations that defend the oceans alert for years on the sometimes irreversible dangers for ecosystems.

At least 100 or 1000 years

On this point, the conclusions of the scientific project DEEP RESTpresented this week in Kingston, Jamaica, on the sidelines of the meeting of the International Marine Fund authority (Aifm) which must establish the future rules of mining extraction, are unequivocal.

“If we remove the nodules of the seabed, we do not know what we lose, only that we will have lost it forever,” said this consortium bringing together 15 European research centers. “Restoration cannot yet be used as a means of managing affected habitats”.

If there is a possible restoration, it will take a lot of time

“For the moment, all the restoration operations that we have attempted within our Deep Rest project were in the short term. And what we observed is that in the time allocated, that is to say in a few years, the ecosystems do not recover,” explains his coordinator Jozée Sarrazin, of the French Institute Ifremer.

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“If there is a possible restoration, it will take a lot of time, and for the moment we do not have the data to be able to say if it will be 100 years or 1000 years,” she continues.

Up to several million species

Despite the pressure, the cold, the total darkness or the lack of food, the great seabed are far from deserted. The number of species that live there is currently unknown, estimated up to several million.

The fields of Pacific nodules thus house a very varied fauna, such as sponges, soft corals or sea anemones which “exist only at this place because they need the hard surface of the nodule to get attached”, explained this week Matthias Haeckel, researcher at the German Institute Geomar, by presenting in Kingston the results of the project MiningImpact.

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Aspire the nodules by propagating sediments which will then cover an area all around reduces population densities, biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems, according to the results of Miningimppact.

Already drastic fall in biodiversity

Marine drill would thus increase the pressure on the biodiversity of oceans, already undermined by trawling. Globally, fish populations have dropped since 1950, had alerted in mid-July to Forum Claire Nouvian, founder and general manager of the NGO Bloom.

“We have lost more than 90% of large fish in the ocean. We are in a phase of collapse of wild life in the ocean. Ecosystems that are crushed by destructive fishing methods, such as background trawling.”

Do not use restoration as an argument

Despite everything, Sabine Gollner, a biologist at the Dutch Royal Institute for Marine Research, believes that it is good that this question of catering is mentioned in the future mining code negotiated by the member states of the AIFM.

But according to her, it is imperative to set limits. For example, a company “should not be allowed to use this argument to undermine a larger area,” she pleads.

Asch with AFP