Photo Jeff ‘Deep Duck Dives‘ Dawson
As part of a global day of action to stop deep-sea mining before it starts, Byron surfers gathered at midday at Clarkes Beach on Sunday to highlight the severe environmental risks and scientific uncertainty surrounding deep-sea mining.
It comes as Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, released a report that confirms the concerns of ocean advocates – the deep ocean is too poorly understood to proceed with mining safely.
CSIRO report
The CSIRO report is called ‘Integrated Ecosystem Assessment and Ecosystem-Based Management Framework for Polymetallic Nodule Collection’ and is available from research.csiro.au/dsm.
CSIRO say the research ‘marks the first time ecosystem-based management approaches have been applied in a comprehensive way to a deep-sea ecosystem’.
Surfrider Foundation says, ‘Industrial strip mining would target the deep Pacific where Australia’s swells are born, it would destroy poorly understood seafloor habitats hosting 90 per cent of species not yet discovered and would create toxic sediment clouds and constant noise pollution, affecting marine life.
‘Scientists warn biodiversity loss and extinctions would be inevitable’.
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