Author: Derrick Lester

A bright orange float bobs up from 2,000 meters below the Atlantic surface at one point, somewhere off the coast of the Canary Islands. It is insignificant in comparison to the vastness of the sea. However, the scientists on board the RRS Discovery keep an eye out for it with the level of focus typically associated with something much more dramatic. Two years’ worth of ocean measurements are carried by that float. Every data point feels important right now. For more than 20 years, the RAPID array, a string of ten instrument-filled moorings positioned across the Atlantic at a latitude…

Scientists are reminded of how little they truly know by the ocean. In November, a team from the California Academy of Sciences resurfaced off the coast of Guam with something amazing: thousands of specimens that had been extracted from depths that most people would never see. These specimens included at least 20 species that, in terms of science, had never existed before. Stacks of PVC plates that have been bolted together and lowered to the seafloor are the story’s almost unremarkable beginning rather than a spectacular discovery. These structures, known as ARMS, or Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures, serve as artificial…

Few scientists have thoroughly examined a portion of the Pacific Ocean floor that lies between Mexico and Hawaii, and most people will never see it. It is located approximately 4,000 meters below the surface, in complete darkness, with so little food that the sediment only slightly increases in size every year. However, life—strange, quiet, patient life—is there, just waiting to be acknowledged. Researchers from the University of Hawaii, in collaboration with scientists from the National Oceanography Center and the University of Geneva, have confirmed the existence of four new species in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a remote area of the seafloor.…

How Trump’s Executive Order Made America the World’s Leading Proponent of Deep-Sea Mining For many years, an international organization secretly controlled what happened to the world’s ocean floors while the United States largely watched from the sidelines. Washington observed, discussed, and occasionally offered commentary, but he never took any significant action. When President Trump signed an executive order on April 24, 2025, ordering federal agencies to expedite deep-sea mining both inside and outside of U.S. waters, that era came to an end. It was a dramatic change that, in some respects, has yet to fully sink in. The order, “Unleashing…

Watching footage from 6,000 meters below the ocean’s surface can be almost disorienting. A human body would be crushed in a matter of seconds by the cold, lightless water. On screen, however, a fish appears to move effortlessly past the camera. The image, which was taken by remotely operated vehicles diving off the coast of Puerto Rico, is the focal point of a recent study that is changing the way marine scientists understand where and why fish can live. The study, which was published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science in 2026, gathered 1,137 observations of deep-sea fish in…

The scene is essentially the same whether you are in Rotterdam, Singapore, Shanghai, or any other major port. Massive ships stood in line, waiting and burning fuel. The emissions are clearly visible, even though the smoke isn’t always. Nearly three percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from global shipping, and the underlying issue is that no one has discovered a completely environmentally friendly method of transporting a 200,000-ton ship across the Pacific. Well, not just yet. For this reason, it’s important to keep an eye on the covert developments that have been taking place in the field of…

The fact that humanity has more accurate maps of Mars than our own ocean floor has an almost philosophical quality. This seems to be something that Katy Croff Bell considers frequently, and unlike most people who think about it over dinner and then forget about it in the morning, she has taken action. A 3D interactive globe with 10,000 target locations on the world’s deep seafloor—each of which represents a location no human eye has ever truly seen—was unveiled this week by the National Geographic Explorer and founder of the Ocean Discovery League. It’s the kind of project that seems…

For many years, deep-sea mining was primarily a theoretical goal that engineers sketched on whiteboards, investors circled cautiously, and environmentalists cautioned about in reports that few people actually read. It seemed far away. Controllable. like a challenge for a future generation to solve. That future suddenly became much closer on January 21, 2026, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a final rule amending regulations under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. It’s not an ostentatious rule. Seldom is regulatory language. Companies can now pursue an exploration license and a commercial recovery permit concurrently rather than one arduous…

When an industry continues to change its narrative, there is something noteworthy. The only practical source of the cobalt and manganese nodules required to construct the batteries that would power the future was deep-sea mining, which was marketed a few years ago as the key driver of the green energy transition. Then the argument began to falter. With the Trump administration actively promoting seabed extraction in international waters, completely eschewing the established procedures of the International Seabed Authority, the discussion has now subtly shifted to national security and vital mineral supply chains. The goalposts have not simply shifted. They have…

Negotiating the fate of an ecosystem you hardly understand has a subtle, unsettling quality. At the 31st session of the International Seabed Authority, a body established to regulate deep-sea mining in international waters, delegates once again convened in a building under fluorescent lights in Kingston, Jamaica, to discuss an environment that none of them will ever be able to see firsthand. About 200 meters below the surface is where the deep seabed starts. The majority of its inhabitants have never been given names. Nevertheless, there is growing pressure to start removing manganese, nickel, and cobalt from those depths. These minerals…