World Oceans Day is celebrated this Wednesday (8). They cover more than 60% of the planet’s surface, but we know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about the depths of the seas and oceans. The last unexplored space on Earth, they attract growing interest and raise geopolitical, economic and environmental questions.
The sea floor extends through the deep oceanic wake, a true subsoil under the ocean. At 200 meters below sea level, there is almost no light. From 1,000 meters, it is a world of absolute darkness and cold between zero and four degrees Celsius. The pressure is a hundred to a thousand times greater than at the surface.
There is a variety of reliefs: vast plains, mountains, volcanoes, canyons and dizzying trenches —11,000 meters deep for the Mariana Trench, for example — and occasional cold seeps or “chimneys” that spew extremely hot lavas of sulphides, in addition to some types of brine lakes where the salt concentration is very high.
“There are so many limitations that every time a man ventures into these spaces it is a true technological and human feat”, write the researchers at Ifremer, one of the most respected institutes of marine technology in the world, located in France.
But despite these extreme conditions, life, although very rare, was able to develop there, as Éric Lesavre, vice president of Advention, explained, who has just published a study on the deep sea for the Fondation de la Mer (“Foundation of Sea”, in Portuguese).
One whale carcass every 10 km
The report realistically describes the ocean floor: “There are some immense fish and large mammals below 1000 meters [você já ouviu falar do blobfish?], and every 10 km or so there is a whale carcass or a very large shark that falls almost intact to the bottom of the sea, and that offers a lot of food for the local biodiversity, which flourishes on it. Many organisms will decompose the carcass,” the Fondation reports.
Pharmaceutical and industrial interests
Near the marine “chimneys” that spew lava, “we were able to identify a series of life forms that are very different from what we find on Earth. This is not a life based on photosynthesis, but on chemosynthesis, for example. very different and varied beings, and we probably only know less than 1% of them”, continues Éric Lesavre.
For Sabine Roux de Bézieux, president of the Fondation de la Mer, the abysses, their mysteries and wonders are “the great frontier of the unknown in the 21st century”. For now, it’s like the “Wild West,” she says. “At the same time, it is an unknown area that makes people dream, that awakens all kinds of fantasies, an incredibly rich Eldorado. And it is also a lawless zone, in which international law will gradually take its place”, while technological progress opens the doors to this underwater world.
The stakes are immense. “There are extremely important potentials in terms of health,” says Vincent Bouvier, former secretary general for the sea, an organization under the French government. Scientists hope to find the drugs of the future: antibiotics, anticancers, pain relievers, etc. Furthermore, “90% of patents filed today on marine genetic resources come from hydrothermal vents,” notes the Fondation de la Mer report, and “52% are held by the German company Basf.”
“These deep waters are also strategic from a military point of view. For example, for the protection of submarine cables”, continues Vincent Bouvier. The vast majority of our exchanges do not pass through satellites, but through these cables. It is an imperative that will require national navies to adapt and evolve, he says.
And perhaps the most coveted aspect of the depths of the sea is its richness in metals and rare earths. These “strategic” minerals are essential for the ecological and digital transition that the planet has undertaken. They are used in the manufacture of batteries for electric cars, wind turbines, drones and solar panels,” the study says. Demand is exploding and Europe, in particular, is seeking to gain independence from China, which supplies almost all rare earths. that consumes.
Fragile and complex environment
At the last World Conservation Congress, more than 60% of states and national agencies voted in favor of a moratorium [fim] on seabed mining. France abstained. Now, opinions and actions are becoming more urgent, notes the Fondation de la Mer.
Scientists believe that the exploitation of these mineral resources would irreversibly affect this fragile and complex environment that took so long to develop. Pollution generated by noise and sediment clouds would have an impact on life in deep waters, and perhaps even the shallower species that we know and feed on. Another possible consequence is the release of COtwo stored at the bottom of the ocean.
While in their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZs), States are free to organize their exploitation of marine resources, on the high seas, that is, more than 200 nautical miles from the coast, in international waters, it is up to the International Seabed Authority. decide. The seabed has been declared “the common heritage of humanity” by the UN, in an attempt to protect it from the greed of countries and private companies. And for Sabine Roux de Bézieux, president of the Fondation de la Mer, it’s important to know and understand before exploring.
“The urgency is to protect these areas before they are damaged. Today we know the state of coral reefs and mangroves, and we cannot let the same happen to the deep sea,” she said. “We encourage France and Europe to work towards proposing a moratorium on the exploitation of the seabed, as we do not know how to extract the earth and the rare metals that are found there without causing irreversible damage.”
“The race to the bottom of the sea has already begun,” she says. About 30 countries already have exploration programs under the control of the International Seabed Authority and the first exploration requests have already been submitted. The race is now against the clock to create robust legislation that can put a brake on the greed of exploiters of all types and backgrounds.
