Ocean Conservation & Tidalpunk

Stavanger, Norway – Greenpeace International released a new report "Gambling with the deep sea - Those betting on mining the Arctic" exposing the Norwegian government and companies' efforts to start deep sea mining in the Arctic, today. At the time of release, activists from Greenpeace Nordic launched a protest action against Loke Marine Minerals, a Norwegian company that wants to start deep sea mining in the depths of the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans. Loke has been outspoken in its ambition to become the world's largest producer of controversial seabed minerals.

The International Seabed Authority has issued 29 15-years exploration contracts for developing resources from polymetallic nodule fields (17), seafloor massive sulphides (7), and cobalt-rich crusts (5). Seven contracts for polymetallic nodule fields have been extended for an additional 5 years.

Northeast Greenland is home to the 79° N Glacier—the country's largest floating glacier tongue, but also one seriously threatened by global warming. Warm water from the Atlantic is melting it from below. However, experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute have now determined that the temperature of the water flowing into the glacier cavern declined from 2018 to 2021, even though the ocean has steadily warmed in the region over the past several decades. This could be due to temporarily changed atmospheric circulation patterns.

The UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is trialling the use of a fossil-free marine diesel to fuel the Royal Research Ships (RRS) James Cook and Discovery.

The BP oil spill decimated miles of habitat in the Gulf, including the unexplored deep-sea coral. Scientists are working to restore its habitat.

Falcón state is not only affected by the oil spills from the Paraguaná Refining Complex (CRP), which is the largest oil processing complex in Venezuela and is made up of the Amuay and Cardón refineries. Oil and gas spills have been recurrent there since November 2019, This have never been accounted for by Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) nor has information been given about an environmental study that began at the end of 2023 as requested by the fishing settlements around the “Golfete de Coro” (Little Gulf of Coro).

Archived link of the article

In the study, researchers reconsider the data, correcting for a gradual shift in Earth’s magnetic field that they say affected the measurements.

The oil and gas industry has been using the North Sea as a free disposal site for decades.

The Metals Company (TMC) has produced high-temperature material (calcine) from polymetallic nodules at PAMCO's Hachinohe facility in Japan.

Relevant article from Grist: Humans know very little about the deep sea. That may not stop us from mining it.

last year, a dive by Oceangate’s Titan sub went tragically wrong. The vessel suffered a catastrophic failure as it neared the sea floor, killing all five people onboard.

On board were Oceangate’s CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, veteran French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, the British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

Rush said he had “grown tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation” and dismissed warnings that he would kill someone as “baseless”.

Most operators opt to have their deep-sea subs certified - but it is not mandatory.

Rush described his sub as “experimental” and, in a blog post in 2019, he argued that certification “slowed down innovation”.

The passengers on Titan paid up to $250,000 (£191,135) for a place.

A new study highlights the connected nature of the Southern Ocean dynamic system, the research priorities needed to understand its influence on climate change, the importance of cross-disciplinary collaborations.

The Coral Triangle, often referred to as the "rainforest of the ocean," is home to over 2,000 species of fish and 600 species of hard coral, making it one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world's oceans. The area’s vibrant marine ecosystems, however, face increasing threats from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, climate change, and pollution.

Makes me happy to see these working so well.