More than a dozen nations have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining as governments at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) gathered in Jamaica on Monday to discuss the fate of the oceans.
The ISA launched a two-week conference to debate whether to open the Earth’s watery depths to countries and companies that, as of Monday, were allowed to start applying for provisional mining licenses.
The authority has issued more than 30 exploration licenses but no provisional licenses so far.
Deep-sea mining uses heavy machinery to suck up off the ocean floor potato-sized rocks or nodules that contain cobalt, manganese, and other rare metals mostly used in batteries….