Say No to Deep-Sea Mining

Add your name to the official letter to stop deep-sea mining, and we’ll deliver your signature to United Nations and International Seabed Authority Leaders.

Update: 21 states have now taken positions against deep-sea mining in international waters: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Palau, Panama, Portugal, Samoa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Dominican Republic, and Vanuatu.

For decades, large corporations have poisoned rivers, devastated forests, and displaced communities. Now, they’re rushing to mine minerals from the last untouched frontier on the planet — the deep sea.

The deep sea may be vast and unexplored, but it is incredibly important. It encompasses 95% of the ocean’s volume and is the largest and least explored of Earth’s ecosystems. Some scientists believe that the deep sea and its water column may be the largest carbon sink on Earth, and new species are still being found there.

A UN body called the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is responsible for governing and protecting the deep seabed on behalf of humankind as a whole. In practice, the ISA Secretariat routinely prioritizes the interests of pro-mining governments and companies over the protection of our fragile ecosystems. Since 2001, the ISA has granted 31 exploration licenses for contractors to explore for minerals beyond national jurisdiction in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

Deep-sea mining would dwarf all other mining operations in human history, and it would take place in a part of the planet that we are only just now beginning to understand. If this dangerous experiment goes wrong, it risks triggering a domino effect of unintended consequences that could destabilize the ocean, trigger food insecurity, and affect all life on Earth.

As citizens concerned about the future of our planet, we urge you to support a moratorium on deep-sea mining and protect the ecosystems that we all rely upon.

Add your name to the letter to #DefendtheDeep.

Click here to view the official letter.

Key Signatories

1. Sylvia Earle - Explorer, Biologist, Environmentalist

2. Jane Fonda - Actress, Activist, Environmentalist 

3. Robert Redford - Actor, Filmmaker

4. Ted Turner - Founder, CNN, TBS, and UN Foundation 

5. HM Queen Noor Al Hussein - Queen Dowager of Jordan

6. Jackson Browne - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee

7. Bertrand Piccard - Explorer, Chair of the Solar Impulse Foundation 

8. Sven Lindblad  - CEO, Lindblad Expeditions

9. Gerry Lopez - Surfer, Actor, Yogi

10. Graeme Kelleher - Former Chairman and CEO, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

11. David Shaw - Managing Partner, Blackpoint Group LP

12. Robert Weir - Founding Member, Grateful Dead

13. Wade Davis - Writer, Explorer, Photographer, Filmmaker 

14. Tom Gruber - Co-founder of Siri

15. Frederick Paulson - CEO, Ferring Pharmaceuticals

16. M. Sanjayan - CEO, Conservation International

17. Pirry - Director, Journalist, Environmentalist

18. Michael Jacobs - Sustainability & Social Innovation Leader, IBM

19. Jonathan Batty - Director of Public Relations, IBM

20. Pierre Ramadier - Global Head of Entrepreneurs & Families, BNPP

21. Pierre Rousseau - Senior Executive Manager, BNPP

22. Erin Urquhart - Associate Program Manager, NASA

23. Oliver Steeds - Journalist, Broadcaster

24. Jay Inslee - Governor of Washington

25. Esha Gupta – Actress, Model, Environmentalist

26. Shawn Heinrichs - Photographer, Filmmaker, Environmentalist

27. Julie Packard - CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Group Signatories

We’d like to offer a special thank you to the Oxygen Project, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition for their critical support and leadership on this campaign. 55,609 of the signatures reflected are carried over from a previous, identical letter on The Oxygen Project website.