A lawsuit waiting to happen: 60,000 say no to seabed mining in Marianas waters

By Jayvee Vallejera

Civil society organizations in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, along with their national partners, have collected more than 60,000 petitions, letters and comments opposing the Trump administration’s plan to allow deep-sea mining near the Mariana Trench.

Neil Weare, co-director of the advocacy group Right to Democracy, said opponents may pursue legal action if the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management steamrolls widespread opposition and permits seabed mining off the Northern Mariana Islands.

Whether by taking BOEM to court, forcing the Trump administration to bend to public opinion or putting the subject at the center of election issues, seabed mining is not inevitable, Weare said.

“So, yeah, we'll fight you in the courts and, hopefully, eventually, we'll fight you in the polls. We will take the fight to where the fight is because this is important to us,” said Weare, who moderated a webinar hosted Tuesday by Right to Democracy and the America the Beautiful for All Coalition

“This is the way things have to go. This is the way the United States has structured it and how they're proceeding," he added.

Weare said deep-sea mining also raises important international law concerns regarding self-determination and mineral resource extraction. “So those are things that we're going to be exploring," Weare said.

Weare said 14 environmental groups have collected a total of 60,075 letters, petitions and comments, which will be submitted to the BOEM.

“When people in U.S. territories come together, our strength and power is compounded. We are proud to support communities across the Pacific to make sure their voices are heard. This is just the beginning,” said Weare.

His co-moderator, Angelo Villagomez, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said the Trump administration's plans “are just as unpopular in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands as they are in the rest of the country. These 60,000 voices are a testament to the importance of the ocean to Pacific Islanders.”

Former CNMI lawmaker Sheila Babauta, who chairs the Friends of the Mariana Trench that also mobilized a petition to oppose the BOEM proposal, said the sizeable number of people who have added their voices to oppose BOEM is a “powerful reminder” that indigenous knowledge, community consent and ecological stewardship must guide decisions that affect the region’s oceans.

“Deep sea mining threatens ecosystems we are only beginning to understand and violates our inherent rights to protect our lands and waters from irreversible harm. The Mariana Trench is not an empty frontier for extraction. It is a sacred place, a living relative, and part of our ancestral responsibility to protect life for future generations,” she added.

This was echoed by Maria Hernandez of the Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, who said the outpouring reflects widespread concern for protecting the Marianas’ sacred ocean regions.

“Our communities in the Marianas are making it clear that decisions made about our ocean cannot be made without our right to free, prior, and informed consent. These 60,000 petitions, letters, and comments send a clear message: Our oceans are sacred. They are not a sacrifice zone,” she said.

Dr. Steven Mana‘oakamai Johnson of Tåno, Tåsi, yan Todu said BOEM’s comment process must honor the rights of indigenous peoples, incorporate local expertise, and meet international standards for free, prior and informed consent.

Citing American Samoa’s experience, panelist Andra Samoa warned that the federal government has a habit of riding roughshod over opposing voices and pressing ahead with its own agenda, a pattern that could repeat with seabed mining.

Samoa noted that the federal government caused “irreparable damage” to the U.S. territory in 2016 by allowing large fishing vessels to encroach on a designated zone intended for smaller vessels only.

American Samoa sued the federal government to stop this and won at the district level in Hawaii. However, Samoa said the Appeals Court later overturned the decision and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

“We can be advocating, we can unite and stand up. But how long will we continue to advocate and stand up to the executive government? I can see the pathway—it's recurring again. We are going to take the time to be strategic, but for me, it's never going to get anywhere because the executive, the head policy person, is not going to listen to us. BOEM is not going to listen to us,” she said.

The 76,000 comments American Samoa received opposing seabed mining illustrate how the federal government ignores opposing voices. Instead of shutting down the plan, BOEM doubled the area under consideration for lease to mining companies, Samoa said.

“So, what I want to do, and just to let all of you know: Take the federal government to court to stop this because they're not going to stop,” she said.

“That's how I feel right now. And just my own down-to-earth recommendation, that it's going to happen, that as long as we are united, we need to find a way to go to court.”

Weare assured Guam and the CNMI that Right to Democracy will explore options to fight the plan.

He said the Trump administration can still be prevailed upon in the court of public opinion. “We've seen this administration walk away from things that are unpopular,” he said.

There were mass firings and resignations last year that proved highly unpopular with the American public. Since then, the administration has quietly walked away from that issue.

The same thing happened with America’s public lands. There were discussions about selling public lands to private interests, but it didn’t happen after many people opposed it.

 Local opponents of the BOEM proposal allied with Greenpeace, Oceana, Turtle Island Restoration Network, Environment America, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council and Southern California Pacific Islander Community, among other groups, to marshal broad support against the proposal to lease more than 35 million acres of underwater lands off the CNMI’s coast for seabed mining

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