One Company Just Cleared Its Last Hurdle to Mine 65,000 km² of Virgin Ocean FloorOne Company Just Cleared Its Last Hurdle to Mine 65,000 km² of Virgin Ocean Floor

The Metals Company (TMC) just cleared its final US regulatory hurdle to start mining 65,000 km² of untouched Pacific seafloor, a stretch of ocean holding one of the densest concentrations of undiscovered species on the planet. It did not wait for the international body meant to govern the deep sea. It used an obscure 1980 US law instead, and in May 2026 NOAA signed off.

The CCZ is one of the least-catalogued ecosystems on Earth, and mining would hit it before science finishes describing it. A 2023 census recorded 5,578 species in the zone, of which only 436 are formally named, an estimated 88-92% new to science (Current Biology). Many depend on the nodules themselves as irreplaceable hard habitat, including the ghostly "Casper" octopus, which lays its eggs on sponge stalks anchored to nodules that take millions of years to form.

Worsening. TMC's unilateral US track is accelerating toward a permit while the ISA's international safeguards are still unresolved, meaning the first extraction path may open before any global rulebook is finished.

40+ governments, including Mexico, Brazil and the UK, back a precautionary moratorium on deep-sea mining. The Center for Biological Diversity is urging Kingston delegates to hold the line against industry pressure. The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition is tracking the negotiations and flagging compliance concerns. Scientists at NH[personne] and the ISA's own "One Thousand Reasons" campaign are racing to name CCZ species before mining begins, to establish the biodiversity baseline extraction would erase.

INDEX: threat=deep-sea mining | zone=Clarion-Clipperton Zone (Pacific) | severity=serious | trend=worsening