By Charlotte Jarvis, ODHN Early Career Ocean Professional, and Kiki Kuijjer, ODHN Digital Engagement Manager

The deep ocean is facing increasing and immediate threats. Bottom trawling, industrial pollution, and the accelerating push toward deep-sea mining are placing unprecedented pressure on some of the planet’s least understood ecosystems. The long-term ecological consequences of such activities are already visible: scars from the world’s first deep-sea mining tests remain etched into the seafloor more than 50 years later.

Sir David Attenborough’s recent feature-length documentary Ocean with David Attenborough draws public attention to these growing threats, offering a rare visual account of its environments and highlighting how little we truly know about the ecosystems now being targeted for extraction.

In this context, the book Threats to Our Ocean Heritage: Bottom Trawling emerges as essential reading. It is a unique publication in integrating cultural heritage into a discussion where the primary focus has been the destruction of natural heritage. Case studies throughout the book highlight places where trawling has already destroyed shipwrecks, but also offers insights into protections that could be given to UCH sites or ways to work with fishermen to protect both their gear and the heritage on the seafloor. 

Meanwhile, the international framework governing these issues remains in flux. Despite more than a decade of negotiations, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has yet to finalise regulations for deep-sea mining. The ISA hopes to adopt a comprehensive framework during its July 2025 session, but member states remain divided on key issues including environmental safeguards and benefit-sharing. Cultural heritage protections, for both tangible and intangible, are also being debated.  

In the absence of consensus, resistance is mounting. To date, 33 countries—alongside numerous corporations and environmental organizations—have called for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, citing a lack of scientific knowledge about the long-term ecological consequences. Together, these voices are urging a more measured approach, one that reflects both the environmental and cultural value of the deep ocean.

In light of these developments, Threats to Our Ocean Heritage, and the forthcoming volume on deep sea-bed mining (keep an eye on this space for updates), provides a timely and necessary perspective. By positioning the seabed as a repository of both natural and cultural value, it challenges prevailing narratives that treat the deep ocean solely as a resource frontier and contributes meaningfully to a more inclusive and responsible approach to ocean governance.

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Image: Jones D.O.B.; Glover A.(2025). Highlight seabed images taken by ROV in the Ocean Minerals Company (OMCO) during expedition JC241 in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (Pacific Ocean, 2023). NERC EDS British Oceanographic Data Centre NOC. doi:10.5285/2e5a5010-4abd-2beb-e063-7086abc0b159