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CLIMATE activist group Ocean Rebellion staged a heavy metal concert outside the Deep Sea Mining Summit in London’s Canary Wharf on Wednesday.
Recently, the UN International Seabed Authority awarded licences to mine up to 9,000 sq km of deep seabed at a time.
Miners search for mineral chunks in the deep sea known as manganese nodules, which can be used for “green” battery technology among other things.
Activists say the practice strips the seabed of all life, including deep-sea sponges and corals that have taken thousands of years to grow.
The noise also disorients marine life that rely heavily on sound to create maps for feeding, mating and communication.
To highlight this to the summit’s participants, the group’s band, Polymetallic Nodules, rocked to the “oppressive sound of deep-sea mining machinery,” singing songs such as “butchering the seabed” during the action on Wednesday.
Stefanie Wels from Ocean Rebellion said: “The ISA must stop this insanity now and start protecting the seabed for the benefit of all life — not for the benefit of its own funding model, nor a group of greedy insiders.”
