2J34PD0 Drilling vessel Hidden Gem of The Metals Company, is being converted in the seaport of Rotterdam, Maasvlakte, it will be the first vessel to be equipp

Two weeks of International Seabed Authority (ISA) Council negotiations have concluded with no mining approved and no Mining Code adopted. Unresolved issues ranged from environmental safeguards and liability to inspection, compliance, and benefit-sharing. Governments, including France, Costa Rica, South Africa on behalf of the Africa Group, Mexico, Germany, Palau, and Brazil, among others, raised major scientific, environmental, and governance gaps. Several States stressed that these issues must be fully resolved before any mining is considered.

As governments meet from 9–20 March in Kingston, Jamaica for the International Seabed Authority’s (ISA) Council session, they confront a defining question for global ocean governance: will the ISA uphold its mandate to protect the common heritage of humankind or rush to open the deep ocean to an irreversibly damaging industry?

Photo credit: JC094, Lissette Victorero

As the European Commission shapes its new Ocean Act, we have an opportunity to turn commitments into real action to defend the deep. With biodiversity loss accelerating, the climate crisis intensifying and industrial pressure on the deep sea growing, from bottom trawling to deep-sea mining and geoengineering, the Act must go beyond words and deliver in practice. The DSCC has submitted recommendations urging that precaution, coherence, and implementation sit at the heart of the 2026 Act, a key deliverable of the European Ocean Pact launched at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice.

2J34PD0 Drilling vessel Hidden Gem of The Metals Company, is being converted in the seaport of Rotterdam, Maasvlakte, it will be the first vessel to be equipp

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) strongly condemns The Metals Company’s (TMC) attempt to fast-track deep-sea mining through a unilateral U.S. permitting process in international waters, attempting to undermine the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and bypass ongoing multilateral negotiations at the International Seabed Authority (ISA). 

In this Knowledge Hub feature, Viliame Kasanawaqa, a Doctoral Researcher at the Macmillan Brown Centre of Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, examines how Pacific Peoples understand and relate to the deep ocean, and what is at stake as deep-sea mining advances.

This year saw the DSCC connecting with ocean scientists around the world, making great leaps forward for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, painting vibrant murals to bring seamounts to life, paddling the shores in protest against deep-sea mining, and much more. Here’s a look at what the DSCC and deep-sea community did in 2025. 

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Large paragorgia coral with galatheid crabs on Pratt Seamount at 800 meters depth. Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Alaska. 2004. Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration.

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) welcomes the decision by the Norwegian Parliament to stop all plans for deep-sea mining in Arctic waters until the current parliamentary period ends in fall 2029.

Asteroschema bidwillae snake stars on plexaurid coral at the Southern Kermadec Ridge Seamount – (CC) NIWA

As COP30 concluded in Belém, Brazil, a noticeable shift in broad ocean ambition was observed. However, the deep sea - one of our planet’s most vital carbon stores and a key climate regulator - remained largely absent from the negotiations.

Image: DSCC

Earlier this month, governments, scientists, Indigenous peoples’ organizations, civil society organizations, and academic institutions from around the world came together at the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) in Abu Dhabi and delivered major victories for the deep.

Deep-sea scavengers. Credit: MBARI Creative Commons

While there has been an avalanche of research and voices speaking out about the impacts DSM may have on the marine environment and natural heritage, less attention has been paid to the potential cultural heritage impacts.