SPC Geoscience Division

Under Pressure is a short video that examines the perspectives of different stakeholders involved with deep sea mineral resources in the Pacific.

Several Pacific Island nations are eagerly eyeing up the potential economic benefits from valuable deep sea mineral resources that have been discovered within their extensive maritime territories. Rising global demand for metals, combined with advances in mining technology, have spurred a rush of commercial interest in the potential profits to be gleaned from the depths of the ocean floor.  

These Pacific Island countries have now become the centre of an international debate over whether the sustainable economic benefits for Pacific Islanders will outweigh the environmental risks of harvesting these precious metals from the bottom of the sea. This short film examines the deep sea mining issue from a number of perspectives including anti-deep sea mining NGO’s, politicians, government agencies, deep sea mining companies, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

Under Pressure is the first of a series of three films supported by the SPC-EU funded Pacific Deep Sea Minerals Project. The next two films will explore the current state of scientific knowledge about deep sea minerals in the Pacific and the current situation in Papua New Guinea, the Pacific Island country that has been at the centre of the deep sea mining debate.

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