Trump sets sights on Pacific seafloor near the Marianas Trench

[Celerity]

Efforts to expand deep-sea mining are alarming scientists and Indigenous leaders, who worry mining risks fisheries and food security.

https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/trump-sets-sights-on-pacific-seafloor-near-the-marianas-trench/



The Trump administration is expanding its deep-sea mining ambitions to the region around the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific, and is nearly doubling the proposed seabed mining area around American Samoa from 18 million acres to 33 million acres, an area bigger than Greece.

The move disregards unified opposition from Indigenous leaders in American Samoa, who imposed a moratorium on seabed mining last year. Governor Pulaali’i Nikolao Pula has asked the Trump administration not to proceed without the territory’s consent, but the federal government plans to move forward with an environmental review. “Our fisheries are essential for food security, recreation, and the perpetuation of our Samoan culture,” said Nathan Ilaoa, director of American Samoa’s Department of Marine & Wildlife Resources, last week in the Samoa News. Tuna makes up 99.5 percent of the territory’s exports.

In a press release, acting Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, director Matt Giacona said the minerals could help U.S. manufacturing and defense. “These resources are key to ensuring the United States is not reliant on China and other nations for its critical minerals needs,” he said. In April, the Trump administration issued an executive order to accelerate offshore mining despite international opposition and widespread concern from scientists about how little is known about the deep-sea ecosystem and the impacts mining could have on it.

The announcement is the first time that the Trump administration has indicated interest in mining the waters around the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory that is made up of 14 islands in the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific. The southernmost island in the archipelago is Guam, a separate U.S. territory. It’s the latest of at least four areas in the Pacific that the Trump administration has sought to open up to mining since April, including the waters surrounding the Cook Islands and the Clarion-Klipperton Zone, a mineral-rich area south of Hawaiʻi.

snip

[hatrack]

1. As long as he goes swimming down there, I'm OK with this move . . . .

[ProfessorGAC]

2. A Mere 16,000 PSIG

I'd be OK with taking a swim down there, too

[Xavier Breath]

3. Mr. President, you'll want to go down and personally check on the work yourself, sir.

[in2herbs]

4. I highly recommend the book "The Underworld - Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean" " by Susan Casey.

Bezos is mining for minerals in this area.

This book is educational on what the oldigarchs here and in other countries are doing to our earth.

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. MAGA: Making America a Great Archenemy.

We'll be dealing with Trump's follies for decades.

[Maru Kitteh]

6. If allowed I could see him blowing a nuke, just for the hell of it,

like a particularly dull child with a cherry bomb he stole out of his cousin’s garage.

[Bayard]

7. You want fish to eat, we want minerals

Any bets on who will win?

[canetoad]

8. China got there first

...snip
Seabed surveyed as China moves into deep-sea mining

The submersible, equipped with robotic arms to collect biological samples and sonar "eyes" that use sound waves to identify surrounding objects, is making repeated dives to test its capabilities.

It is carrying so much equipment that engineers added a bulbous forehead-shaped protrusion containing buoyant materials to the vessel to help maintain its balance.

Fendouzhe, China's third deep-sea manned submersible, is observing "the many species and the distribution of living things on the seabed", scientists on board told CCTV.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-29/chinese-sub-reaches-deepest-ocean-trench-mariana-fendouzhe/12932462

Fucking humans; can't leave anything alone.

[IcyPeas]

9. He thinks the whole planet is his to exploit.