Pacific delegates warn against fast-tracking seabed mining as NOAA updates rules

Delegates of U.S. territories in the Pacific warned that efforts to accelerate deep-seabed mining could sideline island communities and expose fragile ocean ecosystems to irreversible harm, as federal regulators finalized streamlined permitting rules aimed at boosting U.S. access to critical minerals.

The concerns were raised during a U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee hearing last Jan. 22 (Jan. 23 in the CNMI), in Washington, D.C., a day after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finalized revisions to regulations under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. The updated rule allows companies to seek exploration licenses and potential commercial recovery permits through a single, consolidated application—replacing the previous two-step process.

NOAA said the changes modernize regulations written in the 1980s, reflecting advances in technology and scientific understanding of the deep sea. Under the revised framework, environmental, geological, and engineering data collected during exploration may be reused in a commercial recovery application, reducing duplication and potentially shortening permitting timelines.

Industry witnesses told lawmakers in the Natural Resources Committee hearing that the streamlined process would provide regulatory certainty and eliminate redundant reviews without weakening environmental safeguards.

Gerard Barron, chief executive of The Metals Company, said his firm had already filed the first consolidated application under the new rules, covering about 65,000 square kilometers in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.

Guam, CNMI, and American Samoa U.S. House delegates, however, cautioned that faster permitting must not come at the expense of environmental protection or meaningful consultation with island communities.

“I represent Guam. It’s a small island in the Pacific where the ocean is not something we talk about in theory,” Guam Delegate James Moylan said. “It is how we live. It feeds our family. It holds our history, and it connects our people to generations before us.”

Moylan said Guam, the CNMI, and American Samoa have all expressed opposition to seabed mining activity near their waters, warning against decisions made “far away by people who would never see these waters,” while island communities bear the consequences.

He pressed industry executives on whether companies had sought leases near Guam. Barron and Impossible Metals CEO and founder Oliver Gunasekera said no requests had been made related to Guam, though one confirmed a request tied to American Samoa.

American Samoa Delegate Aumua Amata Radewagen underscored the cultural and economic stakes for small island territories, particularly fisheries.

“The topic of today’s hearing is one that stands to have a major impact on my home district of American Samoa,” Radewagen said, noting that while critical minerals are a national security concern, deep-sea mining activity could have lasting effects on island ecosystems and livelihoods. Fishing, she said, is the territory’s lifeblood, and federal agencies must ensure seabed activity does not undermine local economies.

CNMI Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds warned that Pacific territories “don’t get the luxury of being wrong” when it comes to ocean policy.

“Any decision impacting our ocean is permanent,” King-Hinds said. “There’s no fix, and there’s no moving it somewhere else. I was born there. I’m going to die here.”

During her questioning, King-Hinds pressed Gunasekera on whether the company would be subject to a full National Environmental Policy Act review, reflecting widespread concern in the islands that streamlined permitting could be used to avoid a full environmental impact statement.

“People in American Samoa, the people in Guam, the people of the Marianas came out and said, hell no, to sea mining,” she said.

Gunasekera responded that the company was committed to complying with NEPA requirements, including an environmental assessment, a commitment King-Hinds sought to put on the record.

Dr. Andrew Thaler, chief executive officer of Blackbeard Biologic Science and Environmental Advisors, warned that deep-sea ecosystems remain poorly understood and uniquely vulnerable to disturbance.

“The deep ocean is one of the least studied environments on Earth, and the data we do have shows that recovery from mining impacts can take decades, if it happens at all,” he said. “Once these ecosystems are damaged, there is no realistic way to restore them within a human lifetime.”

Thaler pointed to NOAA-monitored experimental mining sites, where biological communities have shown little recovery decades after initial disturbance, arguing that commercial-scale mining would multiply those impacts across vast areas of the seabed.

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, criticized the revised rules as prioritizing speed and industry certainty over environmental protection.

“Fast-tracking deep seabed mining before the science is settled is reckless,” Huffman said. “We are talking about opening an entirely new extractive frontier in one of the least understood ecosystems on the planet, with consequences that could be permanent.”

Huffman said Congress should be exercising greater caution, not accelerating permitting timelines, and warned that regulatory efficiency should not come at the expense of environmental review, transparency.

For Moylan, the debate was ultimately about more than process or efficiency.

“If our waters are going to be discussed, then our voices must be heard,” he said. “Not as an afterthought, but as a requirement.”

As of January 2026, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is at different stages of its Requests for Information for seabed mining in U.S. Pacific territories.

In the CNMI and Guam, the public comment period on BOEM’s RFI closed on Jan. 12, 2026, and the agency is now in the information-gathering and analysis phase, reviewing public input and expressions of commercial interest for a proposed area of about 35 million acres east of the Mariana Trench National Monument.

In American Samoa, the RFI process—launched in June 2025 and closed on Aug. 15, 2025—has been completed, with BOEM advancing to the Area Identification phase as of Nov. 10, 2025, even as the territorial government continues to oppose leasing under a 2024 moratorium on seabed mining. Federal activity has continued despite that opposition, with NOAA announcing on Jan. 22, 2026, plans to map critical mineral deposits in deep waters off American Samoa to further inform the process, a move that has heightened concerns among Pacific leaders about the pace of federal decision-making outstripping consultation with island communities

NOAA, in the final rule published in the Federal Register last Jan. 21, emphasized that the revisions do not alter statutory environmental review requirements or federal oversight, but instead clarify and streamline how applications are evaluated.

The agency said advances such as autonomous underwater vehicles, deep-sea sensors, artificial intelligence, and improved seabed mapping now allow more efficient data collection than when the regulations were first drafted.

The regulatory update aligns with Executive Order 14285, titled “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources,” which directs federal agencies to strengthen domestic and offshore access to minerals considered vital for national security, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing.