Lawsuit seeks to stop deep-sea mining lease sale in the Mariana Islands

By Pacific Island Times News Staff

Conservation and community groups sued the federal government today in a bid to stop the Trump administration’s plan to proceed with deep-sea mining off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.

The lawsuit asked the U.S. District Court of Hawaii to issue a declaratory judgment against the National Marine Fisheries Service's determination that the proposed deep-sea mining leases for the target seabed area would not "adversely affect any threatened or endangered species or critical habitat."

The plaintiffs alleged that the fishery agency rubberstamped the Marine Mineral Administration's plan to award leases on Dec. 16 without evaluating the potential impact of disturbing the ocean floor.

"The NMFS's letter of concurrence violates key legal requirements under the (Endangered Species Act) and reflects a wholly arbitrary and capricious determination," states the lawsuit filed by Our Common Wealth 670, PaganWatch, Conservation Council for Hawai 'i and Center for Biological

 Diversity, representing Earthjustice.

"First and foremost, NMFS did not analyze all effects of MMA's action on ESA-listed species or critical habitat, ignoring the effects from the exploration, 

testing, development and mining that will result from the lease sale," the court filing said.

In July, MMA released a proposal to auction deep-sea mining leases for 69 million acres of seafloor off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. The leases ​would allow companies to extract polymetallic nodules that could be used in batteries, electronics and defense technologies.

"In evaluating the effects of preliminary activities on leases, the Letter of Concurrence does not assess the effects of vessel strikes, vessel noise, vessel discharges, or mooring lines and buoys in reaching its concurrence that the action is not likely to adversely affect any species or critical habitat," the lawsuit states.  

The proposed lease notice for deep-sea exploration in the Marianas region came just weeks after the federal government initiated a leasing process for 31 million acres of American Samoa’s seafloor. Contracts are expected to be awarded in November.

Earthjustice also filed a lawsuit last month challenging the American Samoa lease sale on the same grounds.

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“Illusory promises of short-term economic gains from deep-sea mining can never justify the long-term harm to the people of the Marianas.” said Isa Arriola, executive director of Our Common Wealth 670. “Deep-sea mining threatens irreversible damage to our ocean, our environment, and the communities and cultures that depend on it. Once that damage is done, we cannot undo it.”

“While the Marianas seem far away, ocean ecosystems are interconnected, so deep-sea mining in the Marianas would also have devastating consequences in Hawai'i.” said Jonee Peters, executive director for Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi.  “We stand with the people of the Marianas in opposing this reckless scheme, which threatens critically imperiled whales, turtles, and sharks that are parts of our shared natural and cultural heritage.”

“The rush to auction off leases before evaluating the impact on marine ecosystems and nearby communities appears to be a deliberate tactic to get a highly destructive industry into motion, and that will be hard to stop. It is also illegal,” said Pete Perez, a resident of Saipan and executive director of the grassroots organization, PåganWatch.

Deep-sea mining proposes to extract metals from some of the deepest and most unexplored parts of the ocean using unproven technology.

Scientists said biodiversity loss and habitat destruction will be unpreventable and irreversible if mining using the proposed methods were to advance at scale.

“Mining the bottom of the ocean is a spectacularly nightmarish idea that Trump should back away from immediately,” said Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Deep-sea mining is an industry that does not currently exist beyond a few small, exploratory projects. Encouraging it to advance at scale demonstrates again the Trump administration’s willingness to carelessly barrel ahead in the name of corporate profits at any cost. We turn to the courts to enforce the environmental laws that this administration has been all too willing to ignore,” said Chris Eaton, Earthjustice senior attorney.

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