Proponents say they want to dredge the seafloor for metals needed for clean technology. Indigenous Pacific Islanders call it a threat to life, culture, and the ocean itself.

(Bloomberg) -- Japan is accelerating a decade-old plan to extract rare earths from the deep seabed, an ambitious initiative given extra impetus by the country’s drive to cut reliance on Chinese supply ...

With growing interest in mining critical metals from the seafloor, countries are now negotiating international rules. The Trump administration is forging ahead on its own, speeding up environmental ...

Far below the waves of the Pacific, scientists are uncovering a riot of life just as industrial machines line up to scrape the seabed for metals. Hundreds of newly described animals, from delicate ...

A new study indicates that deep-sea mining could threaten at least 30 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras, many of which are already at risk of extinction. The authors found that seabed sediment ...

Deep-sea mining targets mineral deposits on the ocean floor, typically at depths of 3,000–6,000 meters. Most attention focuses on polymetallic nodules—potato-sized rocks lying on abyssal plains—and on ...