By NALAU BINGEDING
There is now intense debate for and against
the deep-sea mining proposed for the Bismarck and Milne Bay waters. Civil
societies, the public, customary land owners and sea owners, academics and
university students argue that the environmental cost of the deep-sea mining is
unknown and could be catastrophic therefore the proposal should be shelved for
now.
Nautilus Minerals Limited (Nautilus) on the
other hand is adamant that it has spent millions of dollars exploring the sea
floor of the Bismarck Sea and will mine the seabed regardless of concerns
raised on the environmental consequences of the mining on marine ecosystems.
Moreover, Nautilus is determined to see PNG become the first country in the
world to use state-of-the-art technology to do deep-sea mining because it has
been given the green light to do so by the PNG government.
Neither
side is willing to throw in the towel. Therefore funds are being raised right
now by civil societies and the public to take the matter to court so that
justice is done and the deep-sea mining proposal is shelved for now. Nautilus
on the other hand is organizing public forums to appease public outcry and
attempt to find a way forward.
In 2009 the Department of Environment and
Conservation on behalf of the PNG government adopted a 10-year Regional Action
Plan to protect coral reefs and other marine ecosystems through the Coral
Triangle Initiative. The initiative included Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste,
Solomon Islands and PNG. Through the initiative these countries agreed to
support people-centered biodiversity conservation, sustainable development,
poverty reduction and equitable development.
However, the very department that signed
the Coral Triangle Initiative to protect coral reefs and marine ecosystems has
now issued environmental permits for Nautilus to do deep-sea mining in the
Bismarck and Milne Bay waters. This action now contradicts what was agreed
under the Coral Triangle Initiative and compromises the department’s position
as the regulator of the environment in PNG and questions whether the department
has the heart to protect the country’s coral reefs and marine ecosystems.
PNG has a coral reef area of some 14,000 km2,
and ranks second to Australia (48, 000 km2) in terms of coral reef
area if we exclude countries like France and others who have colonies with discrete
populations of coral reefs. Much of the
coral reefs in PNG occur within the Bismarck and Milne Bay waters and generally
remain intact and in good health.
Reef-building corals have a mutually
beneficial symbiotic relationship - one organism depends on the survival of the
other - with a microscopic, one cell algae species called zooxanthellae. The
algae species produces oxygen, helps the coral to remove waste, and supplies
the coral with carbohydrates for coral reef growth. In return, the coral reef
provides the algae a protected environment and other compounds that are
necessary for photosynthesis. This symbiotic relationship is so important that sedimentation
of the ocean and any changes in the ocean’s temperature and pH (acidity or
alkalinity) can adversely affect coral reef growth and health.
It is now known that due to the build-up of
man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the world’s oceans now take in
one-quarter of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is acidifying the
world’s oceans and the zooxanthellae populations are being expelled from the
coral reefs due to high levels of carbonic acid in seawater. Consequently, the
coral reefs cannot survive without the zooxanthellae and many can starve to
dead. Dead of large areas of coral reefs, usually exposed skeletons that have a
white color, is known as coral bleaching. The impact of ocean acidification is
not pronounced at the moment in the Pacific, but this will gradually increase
in the near future.
Global warming is also responsible for
warming of the world’s atmosphere and the ocean surfaces. Thus the warming of
the world’s ocean surfaces has resulted in bleaching of coral reefs in some
parts of the world. In the Pacific the warming of the oceans through global
warming has not had any profound effect, but it is predicted that these impacts
will be more pronounced in the near future.
Mining of the ocean floor in the Bismarck
Sea threatens our coral reefs due to the prospect of further acidification of
the oceans. It is now known that substantial damage will be done on the ocean
floor. Excavation of the ocean floor will involve digging up of volcanic mounts
and breaking down of 15 – 20m tall hydrothermal vents. Consequently, tons of
rocks and sediments will be pumped up to ships on the sea surface in the form
of slurry.
Excavation of the ocean floor will result
in a change in the pH of the water column at the excavation site. Chemical
elements buried beneath sediments and within rocks will be exposed to the
seawater due to the damage that will be done. As a result chemical reactions
will take place between the stirred sediments and broken surfaces of the
excavated rocks, thus the ocean’s pH will be altered.
From basic science one understands that a
diffusion gradient is created when particles move from a high concentration
area to a low concentration area. Thus if the excavation on the ocean floor
turns the seafloor water column acidic due to the chemical reactions that will
take place, a diffusion gradient will be created horizontally, laterally or
vertical through the water column. Consequently the Bismarck Sea could turn
acidic and endanger our populations of coral reefs. This combined with the looming threats posed
by climate change through warming of the ocean surface and the acidification of
the oceans through uptake of excessive made-made greenhouse gases from the
atmosphere can cause massive bleaching of our coral reefs. Thus this threatens
the survival of all other species (including man) that inhabits the Bismarck
Sea and beyond.
One other effect of excavation on the ocean
floor is the proliferation of certain microorganisms through change in pH of
the water column. Certain microorganisms depend on temperature and pH of the
water to be conducive for their exponential growth. At a certain pH and
temperature, these organisms exist in small numbers, but once the conditions
become conducive for their proliferation they reproduce exponentially for a
certain period. Then the population decreases and levels off when food sources
are depleted or the environment is no longer conducive for their reproduction.
Such a case occurred with ocean dredging
for sand to reclaim land from the sea in Japan a few years ago. In the attempt
to reclaim land from the sea in a seaside city in Japan a few years back, the
ocean floor was dredged for sand. However, the dredging caused damage to the sea
floor and released sediments and chemical elements buried beneath the sand into
the ocean water column. This action changed the pH of the seawater column and
as a result it created an environment that was conducive to the growth of a
certain microorganism. These microorganisms then reproduced exponentially and
were dispersed vertically, laterally and horizontally through the sea water
column due to underwater currents.
As these microorganisms were swept by
underwater currents towards the shoreline, they infected populations of
seashells. Consequently, the seashells died and were washed ashore by
underwater currents and the waves, with hundreds of tons of seashells littering
the shoreline and the smell of rotting seashells could be inhaled some kilometers
away. This was an environmental disaster.
Although ocean dredging for sand in Japan
was done at depths not comparable to that proposed for the deep-sea mining in
the Bismarck Sea, there is a high probability for such an environmental
disaster to occur. Excavation on the ocean floor can change the pH of the
seawater column and create an environment conducive for certain microorganisms
to proliferate. Then these microorganisms will have to be dispersed through the
water column due to underwater currents or the effect of a diffusion gradient.
Thus these microorganisms can create environmental disasters if they infect
higher organisms like seashells.
Much of PNG’s coral reefs remain intact and
in good health at the moment. Therefore, these populations of coral reefs need
to be protected at all cost for the livelihood of our coastal populations.
Moreover, the PNG government has signed a treaty under the Coral Triangle Initiative
and has the obligation to protect these coral reefs and the ecosystems that
exist therein. Therefore, any action contrary to supporting people-centered
biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, poverty reduction and
equitable development can only mean that the government is more interested in
money from mining and has no concern for its own people and the very environment
that their very lives depend on.
Nalau Bingeding is a Research Fellow in the Land and
Economic Division within the Wealth Creation Pillar at the National Research
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