#seabed mining

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Hakai Magazine:

When Arvid Pardo, a Maltese diplomat, took the floor at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 1967 and began speaking at length on international law, the room was sparsely populated. Pardo was undeterred.

The deep, dark ocean, he said, is the womb of life. “We still bear in our bodies—in our blood, in the salty bitterness of our tears—the marks of this remote past.” With technology fast progressing, “man, the present dominator of the emerged earth, is now returning to the ocean depths. His penetration of the deep could mark the beginning of the end for man, and indeed for life as we know it on this Earth; it could also be a unique opportunity to lay solid foundations for a peaceful and increasingly prosperous future for all peoples.”

Pardo argued that the deep seafloor falls outside the territory of any state. As humanity raced to exploit the “immeasurable wealth” already known to be hiding there, Pardo said that wealth should be viewed as the common heritage of humankind.

At a time when countries around the world were grappling with the Cold War along with the lingering consequences of colonization and exploitative resource extraction, Pardo’s treatise struck a nerve. After all, who should have access to the deep? Who should benefit from its wealth?

His speech—later characterized by historians as a “you should have been there” moment—set the stage for nearly a decade of negotiations. Eventually, those discussions resulted in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) containing this language: that any industrial activity on the international seafloor must “be carried out for the benefit of mankind as a whole.”

Today, with deep-sea mining companies closing in on mineral-rich rocks called polymetallic nodules, policymakers at the International Seabed Authority (ISA)—the intergovernmental body that governs activities on the seafloor in international waters—are still grappling with the challenge passed down by Pardo. If the resources on the international seafloor are the common heritage of humankind, as UNCLOS states they are, then what, exactly, does that mean? With little to no precedent to rely on, and with the reality of deep-sea mining inching ever closer, the ISA and its member states are in the process of figuring out how to make deep-sea mining work for all of humanity.

[lenrosen]

New Discovery: Polymetallic Nodules on the Seabed Generate Dark Oxygen Putting Seabed Mining Plans Into Question

[nrspeculator]

Mining the seabed floor. Truth or fiction?

(TMC) the metals company Inc. It appears as if some newsletter publishers are pumping this company as the solution to the global deficit in electrification metals. Due diligence and common sense are key to avoiding pump and dump schemes. Maybe this company is the real deal, but I would ultimately wait for it to generate some revenues before taking it too seriously at this point. Stories do not…

[dark-falz]

What's your favorite zone in PSO?

CAVES 2 MY BELOVED!!! Because between ultimate and non ultimate looks I love it just the same :3

and Jungle gets an honorable mention because not only is it so pretty the map is fun >:3

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s Carvalho to lead seabed-mining authority following predecessor’s controversial term

Brazilian oceanographer Leticia Carvalho will be the next secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-mandated organization that oversees deep-sea mining activities in international waters.

She won the election with 79 votes, while her predecessor, 64-year-old Michael Lodge, who served as the ISA’s secretary-general for two terms, received only 34 votes.

Lodge has previously been accused of siding with mining companies, which went against the duty of the ISA secretariat to remain neutral and may have influenced the direction of the prospective deep-sea mining industry.

Carvalho previously told Mongabay that she would work to make the ISA more transparent and rebuild trust within the organization.

Continue reading.

[10bmnews]

Don't let deep sea become 'wild west', Guterres tells world leaders - The Times of India

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (Image credit: AP) United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday the world could not let the deepest oceans “become the wild west”, at the start in France of a global summit on the seas.World leaders are attending the UN Ocean Conference in Nice as nations tussle over contentious rules on mining the seabed for critical minerals and the…

[hellsgate-roadhouse]

Gunkanjima Island - Nagasaki, Japan .

Once the most densely populated place in the world, this island is now a ghost town.

FEW PLACES IN THE WORLD have a history as odd, or as poignant as Gunkanjima’s.

The tiny, fortress-like island lies just off the coast of Nagasaki. The island is ringed by a seawall, covered in tightly packed buildings, and entirely abandoned - a ghost town that has been completely uninhabited for more than forty years. In the early 1900s, Gunkanjima was developed by the Mitsubishi Corporation, which believed - correctly - that the island was sitting on a rich submarine coal deposit.

For almost the next hundred years, the mine grew deeper and longer, stretching out under the seabed to harvest the coal that was powering Japan’s industrial expansion.

By 1941, the island, less than one square kilometer in area, was producing 400,000 tonnes of coal per year.

And many of those working slavishly in the undersea mine were forced laborers from Korea.

Even more remarkable than the mine was the city that had grown up around it.

To accommodate the miners, ten-story apartment complexes were built up on the tiny rock - a high-rise maze linked together by courtyards, corridors, and stairs. There were schools, restaurants, and gaming houses, all encircled by the protective seawall.

The island became known as “Midori nashi Shima,” the island without green.

Amazingly, by the mid-1950s, it housed almost six thousand people, giving it the highest population density the world has ever known. And then the coal ran out.

Mitsubishi closed the mine, everyone left, and this island city was abandoned, left to revert back to nature.

The apartments began to crumble, and for the first time, in the barren courtyards, green things started to grow. Broken glass and old newspapers blew over the streets. The sea-breeze whistled through the windows.

Now, fifty years later, the island is exactly as it was just after Mitsubishi left. A ghost town in the middle of the sea.

[mbari-blog]

Arm up if you're ready for the weekend! 🙋🏻

Perched atop a rocky outcropping, this basket star (Gorgonocephalus eucnemis) stretches out its arm to trap zooplankton and other particles of food drifting in the waters overhead.

A basket star’s repeatedly branching arms bear microscopic hooks and secrete sticky mucus to help grab planktonic prey. After snagging a morsel of food, the arm curls into a tight knot and passes it to the mouth beneath the star’s central disc.

Basket stars are especially common at seamounts. These underwater mountains deflect the currents running along the deep seafloor, concentrating food and supporting a rich community of life. Corals and sponges thrive on seamount slopes and provide refuge for countless fishes and invertebrates.

These deep-sea oases are threatened by fishing gear and climate change, and may soon become targets for seabed mining too. But marine protected areas can safeguard seamounts and the abundant animals that depend on them.

[cheddarchandelure]

https://x.com/NOAA/status/1915814304634298817?t=lZ_l0dhPCqw5blds2PAmWw&s=19

Donald Trump just signed an executive order allowing for deep sea mining.

I genuinely feel like I'm going to cry.

This is an environmental emergency.

So much deep sea life is going to die from this. So many animals we know basically nothing about will be gone. It will take millions of years for the seabed to heal.

I can't take this anymore

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

The long-running battle over whether to allow Pacific Ocean seabed mining took an unexpected turn Thursday when a company disclosed it had been confidentially negotiating a plan with the Trump administration to circumvent a United Nations treaty and obtain authorization from the United States to start mining in international waters.

The proposal, which drew immediate protests from environmental groups and diplomats from some countries, represents a radical shift in the contentious debate over accessing deposits on the sea floor that contain copper, cobalt, manganese and other metals that are needed for electric-car batteries.

The International Seabed Authority, established 30 years ago by an agreement now ratified by more than 160 nations, has jurisdiction over seabed mining in international waters, outside the coastal areas of each nation.

The Seabed Authority has been slowly crafting regulations governing mining, which remains highly contentious because the potential effects of industrial activity on marine life are unknown.

Now the Trump administration, which has already expressed its desire to retake the Panama Canal and assume control of Greenland, is being nudged by the Vancouver-based Metals Company to disregard the Seabed Authority and grant it a license to start mining as soon as 2027.

Gerard Barron, the chief executive at the Metals Company, announced the maneuver Thursday after it became clear that it could still be years before the Seabed Authority finalizes mining regulations.

Contractors from nations including China, India, South Korea, Japan and Poland are also doing exploratory work in international waters under permits from the Seabed Authority, but none of them have been given permission to start large scale mining.

The Metals Company’s application would come in the next several months from a United States-based subsidiary of the company, and it would use a ship registered in the United States. The company would send a giant vacuum-cleaner-like machine 2.5 miles underwater to the ocean floor to suck up potato-size rocks that are loaded with metals.

Mr. Barron said executives had already met with Trump administration officials to promote their plan, which would also require a permit from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

[dailyoverview]

Hashima is a small abandoned island about 9.3 miles (15 km) off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. The island was continuously inhabited from 1887 to 1974 as a seabed coal mining facility, with a peak population of 5,259 in 1959. However, as petroleum began replacing coal in Japan in the 1960s, the mine was closed and cleared of inhabitants. Its abandoned concrete buildings, undisturbed except by nature, and surrounding seawall make the island an eerie, yet popular, tourist destination.

32.627778°, 129.738333°

Source imagery: Maxar

[iamthekaijuking]

What are your thoughts on the Cloverfield kaiju? Aswell as its parasites?

Cloverfield and his parasites are extremely cool and the lore around them is interesting; being creatures that eat seabed nectar being disturbed because a slushy company was mining for their food on an oil rig.

What they are depends on the adaptation, and I think the manga makes them aliens.

At the time the movie came out they were incredibly unique designs, but most modern Hollywood original monsters try to mimic the vibes of it and the Future Predator from Primeval. If they came out today the design would be a dime a dozen and I’m kinda sad that there isn’t as much wild variety in creature design as there used to. The only monster I can think of that really benefits from this archetype of design are the MUTOS.

[lilyinavalley]

Refractions🪞

𝙼𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝙾𝚗𝚎 - 𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜

Taiga Hoshibami x mc Ao3 Ao3 versione italiana [Masterlist] Welcome to my new series! Read the Prologue first <3

When I open my eyes, I'm blinded by the sunlight; the warmth of its rays heats my skin, and the warm, worn wood of the dock tickles the soles of my feet.

The kitty-cat is a little ahead, sitting on the uniform jacket with her legs dangling over the edge of the dock. She's humming a cheerful melody I don’t recognize.

She doesn’t seem to have noticed me.

She takes a strawberry from the basket and eats it in small bites while watching the descending sun. With the arrival of sunset, the silhouette of the moon and stars can already be seen high in the sky.

I slowly approach, and with each step, the wood beneath us creaks like it's groaning. Only then does the kitty-cat turn toward me.

“Oh, hey Taiga.”

Her eyes are wide like the ones of a deer caught in headlights, and there's a smear of strawberry juice on one side of her half-open mouth.

I approach with a mischievous smile and, without even asking for permission, I intrude on her little moment of peace and quiet, then sit next to her with my legs wide open.

She watches my every move cautiously, like I’m an unlit firecracker that might explode at any second.

Taiga: “Careful, if you don’t close your mouth, flies will get in.”

At that, she shuts her lips into a straight line and furrows her brow.

I bring my hand to her face, and she stiffens in terror, her pupils shrinking to the size of fleas drowning in pink puddles.

With my thumb, I wipe the juice from her mouth, then bring it to my own and lick it off while looking her in the eyes.

A light blush spreads across her cheeks. To hide her embarrassment, she turns to the basket and grabs a handful of cherries.

Without even looking at me, she offers me her slender hand full of small red fruits.

“Do you want some too?”

She asks while gazing at the horizon.

My heart skips a beat, then continues beating at its usual rhythm, as if nothing happened.

I take two cherries from her hand and bring them to my lips, pulling them off the green stems. As I bite down, a wave of sweetness crashes over my taste buds.

Mmh, not bad.

When I finish removing the pulp, I spit the pits into the water.

The kitty-cat, however, places hers into a napkin.

“What are you doing here?”

Good question. I have no idea. What was I doing barefoot on the dock?

Taiga: “Dunno, I don’t remember.”

As if expecting that answer, she doesn’t press further. She knows about my memory issues, so she’s not surprised by my cluelessness.

The sea is a deep cobalt blue. Because of its depth, the seabed is invisible, hidden in darkness. Occasionally, some bubbles rise to the surface—probably caused by some kind of marine creature.

The kitty-cat swings her legs, her toes skimming the surface. Mine are submerged up to the ankles.

How cute...

A chill runs down my spine.

What the hell am I thinking?

After a few minutes of silent eating, the kitten finally turns toward me. She was about to say something, but as soon as her eyes land on me, she changes her mind, a playful expression lighting up her sweet face.

“Want a napkin? Not even a two-year-old would get this messy.”

She says, laughing like crazy.

I don’t think she realized what she just said. First, she’s scared of my presence, and now she says something that bold...

A flash of realization freezes her on the spot, her skin losing color. Shocked by her own words, she covers her mouth with one hand, hiding the shadow of a smile that, unfortunately, disappears in an instant.

“Oh god, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

Trying to change the subject, she pulls out a napkin and quickly wipes my mouth.

“There. Now you're clean.”

She forces an encouraging smile and tosses the napkin into a nearby bag.

I’m not great at figuring out what people are thinking, mostly because I often don’t know what I’m thinking myself. But she’s so transparent that even I can tell what’s going on in her head right now.

I have only two options now—let it go… or have a little fun.

Taiga: “You think you’ll get away with that so easily?”

Obviously, I pick the second.

With a serious expression, I move dangerously close to her. Sensing the threat, she’s clearly unsure whether to try to flee or surrender right away.

But I act fast, grabbing her cheeks with one hand and bringing our noses close together. I whisper threateningly:

Taiga: “Do you know what happens to those who talk to me like that?”

…

Taiga: “Usually, they end up with a bullet between the eyes.”

I poke her forehead exactly where I mean.

Taiga: “But since I’m in a good mood today, I have something else in mind for you…”

I drag out the words just to increase her anxiety and make her feel even more trapped. Sometimes it takes very little to make someone feel like there’s no way out.

I smile maliciously, showing my sharp teeth. She squeezes her eyes shut in fear, her eyelids trembling from the tension.

Then pull away, letting my fingers slide off her cheeks.

Sensing my retreat, the kitten opens her eyes cautiously, trying to assess the situation. But before she can fully open them, I push her into the water without warning.

But I underestimate her reflexes.

In fact, just as her butt leaves the dock, she grabs my arm tightly and pulls me in with her.

So, we both end up submerged in the salty water. My vision is blurry, and I can only make out the kitty-cat’s body surrounded by a million white bubbles as she tries to resurface.

I follow her, and when we both come up, we compose a coughing symphony. Neither of us expected to fall into the sea, so the salty water has burned our throats.

Taiga: “Gyahahahah, you really look like a wet kitten now!”

Her bangs stick messily to her forehead. Seawater gathers on her long lashes in little droplets, trickling down her cheeks when she blinks. After coughing, she licks her pink lips and glares at me, furious. Her irises, usually cherry blossom-colored, now seem a darker shade, framed by a web of tiny red veins.

She looks like she wants to kill me, and that only excites me more. The angrier she gets, the more I want to provoke her.

I’ve always believed people show their true selves only when pushed to their emotional limits.

So get mad, kitty-cat. Show me who you really are.

Finally, I see a glint of mischief in her eyes, and I wait expectantly for her next move.

She splashes water in my face, blinding me for a moment—which she immediately takes advantage of. As I raise a hand to shield my eyes, she places hers on my shoulders and uses all her weight to shove me back underwater.

I sink a few meters below the surface, and she swims off like a rocket.

A rush of adrenaline spreads through every part of me. Driven by a predator’s instinct, I start chasing my prey.

When I emerge, she’s already on the shore, bent over with her hands on her knees, catching her breath.

But as soon as she sees me getting closer, she runs off, laughing.

She finally gets that I’m not going to really hurt her.

I climb out of the water, the soaked clothes weighing me down like ballast. Stripping naked in public is too much even for me, so, bearing the discomfort, I start running after her.

A few strides are enough to catch up. When I’m just behind her, I leap like a tiger, tackling her to the ground and trapping her in my arms.

Dry sand gets everywhere, sticking to us like we are magnets.

“Taiga, let me go! The sand’s getting in my mouth!”

She starts squirming like a worm on the pavement. I flip her onto her back, straddle her, and pin her arms to the ground.

Her sand-covered body is now fully exposed. She looks nothing like her usual self—more like a little rebel, with messy hair and wet clothes that highlight her figure.

She looks like a wild creature—attractive and dangerous at the same time.

As I look at her, something ignites inside me, something that wraps around my heart and squeezes it tight, something that quickens my breath...

But before I can name what it is, I’m swallowed by darkness.

And I find myself once again in the hallway of mirrors.

Dividers by: @strangergraphics

[unwhitewashthebadbatch]

Filming on a television series, believed to be the first mainstream prime-time production to have 30 percent of its dialogue in te reo Māori, has just wrapped in Taranaki.

The Warner Brothers Discovery-backed drama Tangata Pai is being made in partnership with Te Atiawa iwi and Ngāti Te Whiti hapū.

It tells the story of five people whose worlds collide when a bomb is detonated at a peaceful Māori protest against a licence to mine a sacred site.

Writer-director Kiel McNaughton, who has whakapapa to Taranaki iwi and Parihaka, said the show had parallels with past struggles and contemporary issues such as seabed mining.

"In terms of Māori needing to stand up. Stand up for their rights, stand up for their land, stand up for what we believe in.

"And we are having to do that now and we were having to do that 140 years ago, so for me it's about looking at what's changed. Has anything changed?"

McNaughton, who is still on his reo journey, said it was important to normalise the use of the language.

"What's exciting about this is that it is being embraced by a broader network which has a much larger audience.

"And being able to get this 30 percent reo content, which shouldn't be intimidating for a non-Māori speaking audience, so for us to have that on Three and for Warner Brothers Discovery to support this is really exciting."

Former journalist Mereana Hond, who is from Taranaki and Ngāti Ruanui iwi, is overseeing the use of te reo and tikanga.

She said Tangata Pai would include subtitles to make it accessible to as many people as possible.

"The fact that it is 30 percent te reo Māori is what sold it to iwi that have chosen to be a part of this.

"This is a collaboration, it is a partnership, there is a memorandum of agreement between iwi and the producers to create something which tells our stories in a different way."

Theres heaps of background talent here in Ngāmotu, so that's been terrific to engage the local community and have them come and be a part of the series and the filming.

"And then we have lots of crew that we've brought from different parts of the country. The majority I would say from Auckland."

Warkia - who has Scottish and Papua New Guinea heritage - agreed with Hond that one of Tangata Pai's strengths was its illustration of how disputes could be dealt with.

"The idea of maungaarongo which is very much about creating space for people to speak even if they have very different opinions.

"Creating a space where they can specifically discuss all of those differences, and that is healthy and important and shouldn't be avoided."

Filming of Tangata Pai, which has Te Māngai Pāho and NZ On Air funding, has now moved to Auckland.

It will screen on Three and Three Now next year.

[albertonykus]

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Doraemon print volumes, Shogakukan has been re-releasing "special editions" of the first six volumes of the manga, which are printed on higher-quality paper and come with additional bonus items.

The bonus item associated with the re-release of vol. 3 is quite interesting to those of us in the English-speaking part of the fandom. It is a reprint of a booklet that includes seven of the stories from the manga translated into English. Originally published in 1981, this was the first official English translation of Doraemon ever released, though it doesn't appear to have been very widely distributed.

The following stories are included (I'm also providing the Japanese titles and English Kindle titles in parentheses):

"Cut-out Capers" ("紙工作が大あばれ"/"The Great Paper War")

"Jack-in-the-box" ("びっくり箱ステッキ"/"The Jack-in-the-Whatever")

"Underwater Stroll" ("海に入らず海底を散歩する方法"/"Strolling on the Seabed")

"The Weather Pane" ("ごきげんメーター"/"The Moodometer")

"The Mi*get Robots" (censorship mine, "小人ロボット"/"Elf-Bots")

"Russian Roulette" ("ラッキーガン"/"The Gamble Gun")

"The Instant Memory Bread" ("テストにアンキパン"/"Memory Bread")

There are also English introductions to the main characters on the inside of the front cover, and a guide to how Doraemon's body functions (translated from "The Doraemon Encyclopedia") inside the back. Interspersed between some of the manga chapters are a few interactive activity pages.

Besides the English comics, purchases of the vol. 3 re-release come with a second booklet (pictured above on the right), which contains some explanatory text in Japanese and compiles the original Japanese versions of the same stories for comparison.

Something I find striking is the amount of effort that was evidently put into this obscure English translation. Not only were all the panels mirrored to be read from left to right, but parts of the artwork were even redone by Fujiko F. Fujio himself. For example, written sound effects were all changed into English, and for a few early stories (such as "The Instant Memory Bread"), Shizuka was redrawn with an updated character design.

The characters all keep their original names and still use Japanese honorifics. Interestingly though, dorayaki is called "Dora-Burgers" on one of the activity pages. (It is otherwise not mentioned in any of the stories included.)

[mbari-blog]

Sit back and enjoy 10 relaxing minutes at the Octopus Garden

Deep below the ocean’s surface, just off the Central California coast, thousands of pearl octopus (Muusoctopus robustus) gather near an extinct underwater volcano. MBARI and a team of collaborators used high-tech tools to monitor the Octopus Garden and learn exactly why this site is so attractive to these animals. After three years of study, researchers confirmed that Muusoctopus gather at the Octopus Garden to mate and nest in cracks and crevices bathed by deep-sea thermal springs.

This site is the largest known aggregation of octopus anywhere in the world, with more than 20,000 octopus nests. The abundance of other marine life that thrives there underscores the need to understand and protect hotspots of life on the deep seafloor from threats like climate change and seabed mining.