Deep Sea Mining Controversy Escalates: A Global Game of Resource Competition and Ecological Protection

On April 24, 2025, the Trump administration signed an executive order, “Unlocking Critical Minerals and Resources Offshore the United States,” to expedite permitting for polymetallic nodule mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the eastern Pacific Ocean, with a plan to create 100,000 jobs and gain access to rare earths within 10 years. This zone contains 70% of the world’s deep-sea nodule resources, including key minerals such as nickel and cobalt, but mining would destroy habitat at depths of up to 5,500 meters, and the sediment plume could spread for hundreds of kilometers, poisoning mid-water organisms. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has made it clear that the United States’ unilateral action to bypass the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a violation of international law, and more than 30 countries have joined in condemning it. Scientists have warned that deep-sea ecosystems take millions of years to recover, and the 1979 Pacific test area has yet to recover.