U.S. Move Bypasses International Seabed Authority, Global Cooperation
April 25, 2025 - WASHINGTON— President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to fast-track a process that purports to allow U.S.-
affiliated companies to mine the deep seabed in U.S. and international waters. The order comes despite the United States not being a member of the International Seabed Authority, the global body overseeing deep-sea mining.
“Fast-tracking deep-sea mining is an environmental disaster in the making. Trump is trying to open one of Earth’s most fragile and least understood ecosystems to reckless industrial exploitation,” said Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The deep ocean belongs to everyone and protecting it is humanity’s global duty. The sea floor environment is not a platform for ‘America First’ extraction.”
The order seeks to expedite permitting from U.S. agencies to facilitate the commercial extraction of minerals like cobalt, nickel and manganese from deep-sea environments both within U.S. waters and far beyond U.S. national jurisdiction.
Deep-sea mining could threaten many fragile, slow-growing species found nowhere else on Earth. Based on some known mining exploration zones, these might include cold-water corals, glass sponges and xenophyophores, which are single-celled creatures that build critical habitat for other species in these remote ecosystems.
Today’s executive order speeds the permitting process for international waters laid out in the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, which Congress passed in 1980 after declining to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The order also allows for permitting in U.S. waters under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
The International Seabed Authority has been working for years to develop a “mining code” that would regulate mineral exploitation in international areas. The latest ISA negotiations highlighted deep divisions among member states but reaffirmed growing calls for a moratorium on commercial deep-sea mining until strong environmental safeguards and scientific understanding are in place. More than 30 countries now support a pause on deep sea mining. Today’s action bypasses the ISA’s multilateral process and directly contradicts efforts by the global community to adopt binding regulations that prioritize environmental protection.
“We won’t let this administration give mining companies free rein to destroy the sea floor and the amazing, mysterious animals living there,” Jeffers said.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
