A new bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley), seeks to ban seabed mining on the California Coast. The California Seabed Mining Protection Act would extend the ban three miles from the entire California Coastline which covers 2,500 square miles of seafloor, including parts of the deep sea, a notorious hot spot for mining.If passed into law, California would be joining Washington and Oregon who banned the practice in 1995 and 2001, respectively. This would mean seabed mining would be outlawed on the entire West Coast of America. The bill is intended to be a preemptive effort and extra precaution as there is currently no seabed mining taking place in California. Seabed mining typically targets mineral deposits like nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper, which are not commonly found on California coasts, to build electric vehicle batteries and other electronics.But according to the bill’s supporters, California may have precious and semi-precious metals and minerals in coastal waters like gold, titanium and phosphorus that could be targeted by miners. The exploitation of these resources could have large ecological ramifications that seabed mining critics say aren’t worth risking. “The ecological impact of mining would be decades long,” Amy Wolfrum, a California Ocean Policy Senior Manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium said. “It would destroy entire communities of plants and animals…some of them growing for hundreds of years.” According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as many as ten million species may inhabit the deep sea and about two-thousand marine species are discovered each year.What’s more, critics say seabed mining threatens recreation, tourism and fishing, which together brings in $27 billion for the state’s economy. In the Monterey Bay Region alone, tourism and fishing is valued at $7 billion. “California has always been an environmental leader,” Wolfrum said. “We’ve led on environmental policies in many different ways, and this helps to protect the ecosystem services that our ocean provides…our recreation, our tourism, our economy, the food we eat, the fish we eat…this helps to protect it now and into the future. And it’s really an important policy to put in before any damage is done.”
MONTEREY, Calif. —
A new bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley), seeks to ban seabed mining on the California Coast.
The California Seabed Mining Protection Act would extend the ban three miles from the entire California Coastline which covers 2,500 square miles of seafloor, including parts of the deep sea, a notorious hot spot for mining.
If passed into law, California would be joining Washington and Oregon who banned the practice in 1995 and 2001, respectively. This would mean seabed mining would be outlawed on the entire West Coast of America.
The bill is intended to be a preemptive effort and extra precaution as there is currently no seabed mining taking place in California.
Seabed mining typically targets mineral deposits like nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper, which are not commonly found on California coasts, to build electric vehicle batteries and other electronics.
But according to the bill’s supporters, California may have precious and semi-precious metals and minerals in coastal waters like gold, titanium and phosphorus that could be targeted by miners. The exploitation of these resources could have large ecological ramifications that seabed mining critics say aren’t worth risking.
“The ecological impact of mining would be decades long,” Amy Wolfrum, a California Ocean Policy Senior Manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium said. “It would destroy entire communities of plants and animals…some of them growing for hundreds of years.”
According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as many as ten million species may inhabit the deep sea and about two-thousand marine species are discovered each year.
What’s more, critics say seabed mining threatens recreation, tourism and fishing, which together brings in $27 billion for the state’s economy. In the Monterey Bay Region alone, tourism and fishing is valued at $7 billion.
“California has always been an environmental leader,” Wolfrum said. “We’ve led on environmental policies in many different ways, and this helps to protect the ecosystem services that our ocean provides…our recreation, our tourism, our economy, the food we eat, the fish we eat…this helps to protect it now and into the future. And it’s really an important policy to put in before any damage is done.”
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