Letter

Say No to Deep-Sea Mining

320,804 signatures. Let’s get to 350K

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: 27 nations 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, Greece, Ireland, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Palau, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Samoa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the kingdom of Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom, 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.

Supporters
AA J

🪼 🌊🪸💛☀️

1 day ago
동현 김

Destruction of the deep sea ecosystem!

3 days ago
Aroha R

I am signing because deep sea mining will damage our ecosystem down there

2 weeks ago
Te Manakore H

use are braking the world a part piece by piece

3 weeks ago
Till B

because the deep sea is the mother of our world and life and if she die we die with she.

1 month ago
Jade W

i am signig because, its so damaging to our oceans. DO BETTER

1 month ago
Jessica D

I care about Oceans.

1 month ago
Erica K

how would you like to be in a small space with ear piercing nonstop sounds with no escape and then the damage to everything nothing is right about thi…

1 month ago
Edina K

Our oceans are already on the brink of collapse due to warming, acidification, thermal current patterns are in havoc. We cannot let the madness contin…

1 month ago
Dee D

to stop the destruction of our ocean floors & countless marine life

1 month ago
azaniel f

i like fishy

1 month ago
Bre F

I care.

1 month ago
Megan D

mining the nervous system, lungs and DNA of our planet is the most dangerous and horrifying thing I've ever heard of

2 months ago
Patricia E

We should never bother anything there . Its only greed that is taking humans there . Stop destroying our planet

2 months ago
Pablo S

its important

2 months ago
Laura

I AM INTENSELY OBSESSED WITH PROTECTING THE OCEAN AND HER CREATURES!

2 months ago
Sierra J

i care

2 months ago
Susanna R

Because The Sea is cruicial part of our eco system and our home Earth and it needs our help now more than ever.

3 months ago
Dilnaz I

I am signing because say no to deep-sea mining! It destroys marine ecosystems, threatens biodiversity and worsens the climate situation. Let's protect…

3 months ago
Marina E

stop do it

3 months ago
Linda L

not right

4 months ago
Ruth Y

i am a Biologist and see the disasterous ecological dangers inherent in such a proposal!!!!!

4 months ago
Tiffany A

deep sea mining will destroy our oceans.

5 months ago
Autumn Q

We need are planet to heal!

6 months ago
Nan M

there is no planet B

6 months ago
Add your name
Share this campaign

30 free trees if you sign up today

Save the planet every month with our membership

Grow your own forests and reefs

Remove plastic and carbon pollution

See your impact in a personal dashboard

Invite friends to plant with you

100% of funds go to projects