deep sea mining
“The Moana is a not a resource. It is a living ancestor.” American Samoa residents have been protesting US government plans to auction lease sales for offshore mining near the territory. Local civil society groups are opposing the auctions, citing ecological risks to marine life and the fishing...
“The Moana is a not a resource. It is a living ancestor.” American Samoa residents have been protesting US government plans to auction lease sales for offshore mining near the territory. Local civil society groups are opposing the auctions, citing ecological risks to marine life and the fishing...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — An environmental group is challenging the United States' legal authority to sell seabed mining leases covering waters off the coast of American Samoa, as the Trump administration pushes ahead with plans for a deep sea mining auction around the Pacific territory.
The US...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Few people on Earth have seen a polymetallic nodule 4 kilometers under the ocean, but Rob McCallum is one of them.
"They are anywhere between the size of a potato or a baseball and they are black," he said.
McCallum is a divemaster and founder of EYOS Expeditions, a firm...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Commercial deep sea mining (DSM) in the Cook Islands and other pro-mining Pacific countries could begin as early as 2027, an Australian-based think tank predicts. However, the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) maintains that exploration will continue until...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — On September 24, 2026, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) commenced an additional mapping expedition aboard NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer focused on unexplored deepwater regions near American Samoa. The expedition follows NOAA’s recently completed...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Lou Leon Guerrero, the governor of Guam, learned about the government’s plan to mine her people’s waters the same way everyone else did: by reading the news.
It was November 12, and her advisor had sent her an article link — apparently, a journalist had inquired about it...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Swains Island Representative Su'a Alex Eli Jennings has introduced legislation aimed at turning American Samoa's existing deep-sea mining moratorium into permanent territorial law, strengthening protections for the territory's marine environment and natural resources....
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Guam's governor is demanding formal consultation over a proposed deep sea mineral lease sale in federal waters off the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).
Governor Lou Leon Guerrero said Guam was left out of a process afforded to the CNMI.
Leon Guerrero...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Governor Pulaali‘i Nikolao Pula has submitted his formal comments to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) regarding the proposed PACM-1 offshore mineral lease sale.
The Governor’s comments were informed by public comments submitted to his office, the work of...