Seabed mining around New Zealand's volcanic exclusive economic zone (EEZ) areas could destroy unique underwater ecosystems and have profound effects on sea life, a leading marine biologist warned Monday.
Professor Jonathan Gardner, of Wellington's Victoria University, said the active geological nature made parts of the EEZ, which totaled about 5.7 million square kilometers, of great interest for the mining of seabed minerals.
One such area was the Kermadec Volcanic Arc, where breaks in the submarine crust of the Earth's surface allowed cold seawater to enter into the rock, where it was heated, Gardner said in a statement.
The hot water, containing metals such as gold, copper, silver, zinc and rare earth elements, was forced out of the ground to form chimney-like hydrothermal vent systems, called seafloor massive sulphide deposits, which were potential sites of future mining activity.
Associated with the deposits were well-developed and often unique biological communities that would be damaged or destroyed by mining.
"Initial assessments of global mineral wealth from the seafloor put the value of these resources well into the trillions of dollars. Increasing world demand for minerals, plus technological advances, have combined to make deep-sea mineral extraction a possibility right now," he said.
Large areas had been licensed for prospecting as far back as 2002 and research, funded by the government and by industry, was identifying and characterizing the location and extent of mineral deposits.
"Based on the size and economic potential of mineral deposits, the mining industry suggests that one in every 10, or perhaps one in every 20, seafloor massive sulphide deposits may be economically viable and therefore mineable," he said.
"Because vent sites may act like 'stepping stones' for dispersal of animals along a ridge, it is crucially important to understand the impact of mining activity at each site. The loss of an individual site to mining activity may have profound consequences on the stepping stone model of connectivity among vent sites if animals cannot disperse beyond it."
Further debate was needed in New Zealand so that informed decisions could be made about the balance between exploitation and conservation that the country wished to pursue, said Gardner.