An expert has revealed the huge environmental impact of Japan's $26,290,780,000 discovery that will support its economy for at least the next decade.
Researchers from The Nippon Foundation and the University of Tokyo recently uncovered a significant deposit of manganese nodules near Minami-Tori-shima Island, located some 1,200 miles southeast of Tokyo and 5,700 meters below the ocean surface.
This field contains millions of metric tons of cobalt and nickel, two key components in electric vehicle (EV) battery production.
The discovery is substantial for the country, featuring about 610,000 metric tons of cobalt and 740,000 metric tons of nickel, valued at approximately $26.29 billion.
While the financial prospects are undeniably positive, the environmental implications... not so much.
Travis Washburn of the Geological Survey of Japan spearheaded a study revealing the severe consequences deep-sea mining could have on marine ecosystems.
Washburn's research - which involved a two-hour operational test - suggested that the disruption caused to the ecosystem in the area could be detrimental for the environment.
The expert saw a 43 percent reduction in local fish and shrimp populations after just one year.
"These results suggest the impact of deep-sea mining could be even bigger than we think," Washburn stated, emphasizing the unexpected scale of disruption caused by seemingly minor extraction activities.
"I had assumed we wouldn’t see any changes because the mining test was so small. They drove the machine for two hours, and the sediment plume only travelled a few hundred meters," Washburn continued before adding: "But it was actually enough to shift things."
Sophie Benbow, the director of the marine programme at a conservation charity, voiced additional concerns about the potential losses to ocean biodiversity.
Speaking to the BBC, she highlighted the untapped potential of deep-sea organisms in contributing to medical and technological advances.
"There is so much we could learn from ocean biodiversity," she told the outlet. "Medical advances and new technologies could be deciphered from the study of deep-sea species, but they could be wiped out before we even know they exist if deep-seabed mining is to go ahead prematurely."
As the country moves forward in harnessing this newfound discovery, the balance between economic gain and environmental protection remains a key point of interest.
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