I don’t know if many Belgian people are aware of this but Belgium is actively participating in this shady activity called Deep Sea Mining (even though many countries are totally against it because of the disruptiveness). On top of that, most scientists state that starting the commercial exploitation of the ocean floor will cause irreversible damage to a system that’s already under so much threat due to overfishing and what not (watch seaspiracy for more info).

[https://seas-at-risk.org/publications/belgiums-support-to-deep-sea-mining-scrutinized/](https://seas-at-risk.org/publications/belgiums-support-to-deep-sea-mining-scrutinized/)

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But what I find even more astonishing is that at the same time apparently Belgium is ‘founder’ of a fund called ‘Blue leaders’ whose aim it is to protect oceans and seas and was a big supporter of the current treaty that was approved at UN Level concerning the protection of 30% of the oceans and seas as natural reserves.

[https://www.theblueleaders.org/](https://www.theblueleaders.org/)

It seems quite a hypocritical stance between two worlds? I think it’s not a sustainable strategy to say ‘nature can have 30% and we’ll overuse and exploit the other 70%’ but it seems to be the attitude of Belgian government in this topic. Also, scientists are pretty sure the ocean ecosystem doesn’t work like this and over-exploitation of only 10% of the stocks can cause a butterfly effect throughout the entire system…

One hypotheses: whales use the area for breeding but due to noise and other disruptive elements they cannot use this area anymore and they have to relocate, causing a drop in their numbers which subsequently will offsett all the balances of other populations that whales usually ‘control’, creating disbalance in the entire food chain and causing overpopulation of certain animals which will then cause the extinction of other animals they are feeding on. This system and the possible effects are already quite known in science, so why aren’t politicians taking note? It’s like the big-oil situation all over again it seems 🙁

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I do also realize that the rare elements found on the ocean floor could be necessary for the energy transition but I do believe there are other options available and if they are not, they should look into small-scale, less intrusive ways of mining them. Even if that would make stuff a lot more expensive? It’s not like we are not already swimming in wealth and it could be a good opportunity for creating employment in other regions closer to where the deep sea mining is actually located…

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Anyone care to share/discuss?

4 comments

  2. Belgium is not actively participating in anything.
    DEME – a marine company- has been granted an exploratory license to conduct deep sea mining tests in the Pacific with Belgium as a country facilitating the granting of the license.

    Furthermore DEME advocates that it can harvest these deep-sea manganese nodules with limited damage to the environment. Given that manganese is a quite important material in – amongst others- electric batteries, it could be a worthwhile avenue to explore deep sea mining. Most forms of mining unfortunately lead to some sort of environmental damage, choosing the option that harms the least does not seem a bad thing to me.

  4. This is disturbing, but I don’t think there is anything we can do about it. What do you think are some good alternatives to these mining operations?

    Also ‘we are swimming in wealth’? Have you looked at the ‘begroting’ and the shortage it has each and every time it gets made?

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