More than 5,000 new species discovered in Pacific deep-sea mining hotspot

[UngulateNerd92]

A wealth of biodiversity has been found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area earmarked for exploitation by mineral firms.

Scientists have discovered more than 5,000 new species living on the seabed in an untouched area of the Pacific Ocean that has been identified as a future hotspot for deep-sea mining, according to a review of the environmental surveys done in the area.

It is the first time the previously unknown biodiversity of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a mineral-rich area of the ocean floor that spans 1.7m sq miles between Hawaii and Mexico in the Pacific, has been comprehensively documented. The research will be critical to assessing the risk of extinction of the species, given contracts for deep-sea mining in the near-pristine area appear imminent.

Most of the animals identified by researchers exploring the zone are new to science, and almost all are unique to the region: only six, including a carnivorous sponge and a sea cucumber, have been seen elsewhere.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...discovered-in-pacific-deep-sea-mining-hotspot

 

[UngulateNerd92]

Here is another relevant article.

Meet the ‘gummy squirrel’ and thousands of other newly discovered deep-sea species – in pictures

A trove of biodiversity has been catalogued by scientists in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast area of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico, which has been targeted by deep-sea mining companies keen to exploit its mineral wealth.

Meet the ‘gummy squirrel’ and thousands of other newly discovered deep-sea species – in pictures

 

[UngulateNerd92]

Here is another relevant article.

Thousands of unidentified deep-sea species found in part of Pacific Ocean earmarked for mining

An area of sea floor between Hawaii and Mexico is rich in the critical minerals needed to build batteries.

But the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) is also rich in marine life — much of it virtually unknown to science, according to new research published today.

Key points:

• More than 5,000 new species have been pulled from the region and there are likely many more

• Canada-based The Metals Company is aiming to begin mining 'potato-sized' nodules rich in copper, manganese, nickel, and cobalt next year off the sea floor next year

• Critics say there are too many unknowns, including what impacts deep-sea mining could have on medically valuable genetic material and biodiversity

Seventeen mining exploration licences cover about one-fifth or 1.2 million square kilometres of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, with international interests eying off its abundant manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt deposits.

A complex chemical process has coalesced the minerals into highly pure "potato-sized" nodules that sit untethered in the sediment on the sea floor.

A new study published in Current Biology has found there are more than 5,000 species in the zone that are yet to be formally identified. Many are small — just a few millimetres in size.

Underwater surveys, the bulk of which have been done over the past decade, have brought back samples of species from across the region.

The large majority of those have been recorded informally in databases or in journals, according to study lead author Muriel Rabone of the Natural History Museum London.

"A lot of the work in the CCZ has been done by taxonomists and specialists ... and in these publications they've been recorded as an undescribed species and they're given these [holder] names.

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