By Caleb Fotheringham and Tiana Haxton, RNZ Pacific journalists
Not enough is yet known about the seafloor to decide if deep sea mining can start in the Cook Islands, says an ocean scientist with the government authority in charge of seabed minerals.
The Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) returned last week from a 21-day deep-sea research expedition on board the United States exploration vessel EV Nautilus.
The trip was also funded by the United States and supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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The Nautilus in the Cook Islands. Video: RNZ Pacific
High-resolution imagery and data were collected in a bid to better understand what lives on the seafloor.
SBMA knowledge management officer Dr John Parianos said the findings would guide decisions about seabed mining.
“One day someone will have to make a decision about what to do and it’s clear today we don’t know enough to make a decision,” Parianos said.
On its return, EV Nautilus was confronted by a group of Greenpeace Pacific protest kayakers holding signs that read: “Don’t mine the moana”.
One of the protesters, Louisa Castledine told RNZ Pacific she was conscious both NOAA and Nautilus had a reputation for being “environmentally friendly” but was concerned about research being “weaponised”.
“This research is being used to help enable and guide decision making towards deep-sea mining,” said Castledine, who is the spokesperson for Ocean Ancestors.
“It’s the guise in which this research is being used, and it’s who sent them is the challenge, because who sent them is quite clear on their intent in mining.
In August, the US and the Cook Islands agreed to work closer in the area of seabed minerals to “advance scientific research and the responsible development of seabed mineral resources”.
It came off the back of the Cook Islands signing a five-year agreement with China to cooperate in exploring and researching seabed minerals.
Jocelyn Trainer, a geopolitical analyst with Terra Global Insights, said both countries were interested in the metals to enhance military capabilities but it was not the primary market.
“Volumes are greater for other industries such as the renewable energy sectors and in China there’s huge demand for electric vehicles.”
Trainer said China was ahead of the US in obtaining critical minerals through land mining and mineral processing.
“The US is seeming to choose to start with the supply side of things, get the minerals, and then perhaps work up the knowledge of production and refining.”
Castledine said the region was in the middle of a “geopolitical storm” with the US and China vying for control over deep-sea minerals.
“The USA is building their military might within the Pacific and this is one of those ways in which their reach is moving more into the Pacific and more specifically into Cook Islands waters.”
The Nautilus expedition focused on discovery and the chance to test new deep-sea technology.
Expedition lead Renato Kane said bad weather threatened the mission. However, it cleared up in time to send their ROVs down.
“We’ve had six really successful dives to the sea floor. We’re diving these vehicles down to over 5000 meters depth and the length of these dives were on average, about 30 hours each.
“So we’ve got a lot of high definition video footage for scientific observation on the sea floor.”
Central to the expedition’s success was the testing of a new, ultra-high-resolution camera, the MxD SeaCam, designed for deep-sea research at depths of up to 7000 metres.
The camera combines a compact broadcast camera with custom-built titanium housing to capture 4K images with remarkable clarity.
Dr John Parianos said it was some of the best footage ever recorded several kilometres below the surface.
He said footage would help create the Cook Islands first public catalogue of deep-sea life.
“We’ve benefited from probably the highest resolution images ever taken at these depths in the whole world ever,” he said.
“We need to make a catalogue of the types of life in the Cook Islands seabed so that researchers in the future can reference it. Having such high-quality images means that the catalogue will be even better quality than what exists internationally today.”
Tanga Morris, who was responsible for logging data of both biological and geological discoveries on the expedition, said she was in awe of the various life forms they observed.
“One of the main ones that’s quite dominant down in the deep sea would be deep-sea sponges. We’ve seen them in different species, morphotypes, and sizes, even a whole garden of them.”
Other creatures found were sea stars, anemones, octopi and eels — some of which have possibly never been seen before.
“A few people have asked questions like, ‘have you guys spotted any unidentified species?’ And I think we have come across a few, but then it will take a while to really be sure.
“But if so, what a great milestone it is for us to acknowledge that within our Cook Island waters.”
Dr Antony Vavia, a senior research fellow at Te Puna Vai Marama, the Cook Islands Centre for Research, said the opportunity to go onboard and study deep-sea organisms firsthand was an eye-opening experience.
“Everything that I’ve seen down there has been a bit of a wow for me. [I’m] just amazed at how much life is down there. I was talking to my former supervisor, and he described us as the ‘astronauts of the sea’.”
A notable feature of the EV Nautilus was its 24/7 online livestream.
He said people from around the world tuned in during dives to see the deep-sea discoveries for themselves.
“Being able to show what our ROV — what is ROV, the little Hercules, is seeing in real time, and so having the wholesome thought that we’re not on this exploration journey alone.
“But the fact that we can broadcast it to anyone that is interested and invested in learning more about our deep sea environments is incredibly rewarding, because you feel like you’re pulling in others to be a part of this discovery.”
Dr Vavia who is also a lecturer at Auckland University of Technology, said many schools and university groups had got involved, broadcasting the deep-sea right into their classrooms.
“The opportunities to reach out to schools from a primary school level all the way up to university has been a great opportunity to showcase the science that we’re doing here, and hopefully to inspire younger generations and those that are already in the pursuit of careers in marine science or doing work on board research vessels such as the EV Nautilus.”
The EV Nautilus crew said this element of the voyage helped to answer the public’s questions on what life is found on the seabed.
Crew member and journalist Madison Dapcevich said they hoped their passion inspired future scientists.
“Something that’s really great about Nautilus is we do have this like childlike wonder. We do get really excited about sponges, which most people are not that excited about.
“And then it’s also a great pathway for early career professionals. So we do have an internship and fellowship programme, and those applications are open right now through to the end of the year.”
The teams findings that will form their first public catalogue of deep-sea life will be a foundation for future research and one day, the difficult decisions about what lies beneath.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
