The Pacific Island Nation That Wants To Mine The Ocean Floor

ETVBHARAT

A deep-sea mining ship explores Cook Islands' seabed for critical minerals, sparking debate between promised economic gains and fears of irreversible environmental damage.

Transcript

00:00A 1,000-ton ship is sailing in the South Pacific looking for metals deep under the ocean.

00:16These metals are used in batteries, cars and phones.

00:32The Cook Islands have a lot of these metals on the seabed.

00:36Some people think deep sea mining can bring money and jobs.

00:40Others are worried.

00:42They fear it may harm the ocean, fish and marine life.

00:46On the environmental side, we do not want to do harm.

00:49We need to establish how we can prevent that from happening.

00:52The resource in our field is probably in order of about $4 billion in potential value.

00:58So that's value.

00:59That doesn't mean how much money you're going to make.

01:02Obviously there's costs and so forth that go against it.

01:05But when we look at our economic analysis, the project is profitable.

01:09The project makes money and it makes good money.

01:11People talk about tourism will be adversely affected.

01:14The mining will be happening and people visiting the island as tourists wouldn't even know

01:17that it's happening because you can't see it.

01:19It's over the horizon.

01:20I want to be mining before 2030.

01:22Yeah, absolutely.

01:26I think that if we can get the right support and the right group of people together and we

01:37do our job properly, we can be mining before 2030, yeah.

01:43Many islanders love and depend on the sea.

01:46They don't want to lose their clean water and healthy reefs.

01:51For Pacific Islanders, our ocean is like our food basket.

01:54It's our life source.

01:57It's a part of our culture.

01:59We rely on it so much.

02:01So we need to really be making sure we're looking at the health of our ocean and keeping

02:08it healthy for the next generation to come after us.

02:12We'd really be the guinea pigs of this industry going first and blinded, I would say, by not

02:21really being made aware of the risks involved.

02:24So, yeah, it could have long term implications in terms of our credibility as a tourist destination.

02:35It's a risky, risky move.

02:38We're not happy with that.

02:39We're not happy with that, too, because we want to keep things for ourselves.

02:42We don't want foreigners to come in and take over what belongs to us.

02:52Some call this mining a gold rush, others call it madness.

02:57Scientists say we still don't know enough about deep sea mining.

03:01They warn that once damage is done, it may not be fixed.

03:06The science says it's safe, you know, like, it's not a matter of damage, it's a matter of

03:11how much, you know, like, but you do much, you do damage everywhere.

03:15Like you kill sorts of animals like wasps, nests, rats, things like that on the daily.

03:20So, if we're going down there, if you're mining, but you're minimizing the damage by like 5%,

03:24look, hey, you know, there's a baseline, there's a measurement, and I don't see any problem opposing that.

03:33The Cook Islands say they will follow the science before making any decision.

03:38You do double-click.

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