By Farah Obaidullah | Founder & Director of The Ocean and Us
Dear Friends and Supporters,
We kicked off the year in London, where we were invited to speak at EarthPercent’s annual event. Bringing together artists and the wider music industry, EarthPercent supports organisations tackling the climate and nature crises. Alongside its founder Brian Eno and artists such as Jacob Collier, David Gray, and Louis VI, we highlighted one of the most urgent and least visible threats facing our planet: deep-sea mining. (See link to the video at the end of this report)
Building on this momentum, we are currently developing an Artists’ Pledge for the Deep. This initiative will invite artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, and cultural leaders to join a global call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining and for the protection of one of the ocean’s most extraordinary places: the Lost City.
Deep in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond national jurisdiction, the Lost City rises like an underwater cathedral. Its mineral towers, formed over more than 120,000 years, shelter rare life and offer unique insight into the origins and resilience of life on Earth. It is one of the most remarkable ecosystems ever discovered.
Yet this extraordinary site now faces a growing threat. A deep-sea mining exploration license has been granted nearby. The potential impacts, including sediment plumes, toxic discharges, and habitat disruption, could irreversibly damage this fragile ecosystem before it is fully understood or protected. Life in the deep sea evolves slowly and is highly sensitive to disturbance. Once lost, it may take centuries to recover, if it recovers at all.
The recent entry into force of the High Seas Treaty marks a historic opportunity. For the first time, the global community has a framework to protect biodiversity in international waters, including the creation of Marine Protected Areas grounded in science and cooperation. This is our chance to ensure that places like the Lost City are safeguarded for future generations.
Our Artists’ Pledge is the first step in a broader campaign to protect the deep ocean. In the coming months, we aim to develop educational tools for schools and museums, and subject to funding, launch an interactive platform and organise a scientific and cultural expedition to the Lost City.
As we continue to monitor the political landscape around deep-sea mining, we are seeing encouraging signs at the international level. At the latest meeting of the International Seabed Authority Council in Jamaica in March, despite the unilateral stance of the United States, which has signaled its intention to mine in international waters, member states made clear that a mining code is far from ready, and they are therefore not ready to move forward with commercial deep-sea mining. This is an important reminder that collective action and informed advocacy can shape global decisions. We must keep the pressure on and ensure deep-sea mining is not given the greenlight.
The deep ocean is one of the last truly wild places on Earth. It is a place to inspire, to explore, and to protect, not to exploit.
With your continued support, we will keep working to ensure that it remains so.
Thank you for standing with us.
Farah Obaidullah,
Ocean Advocate, Founder of The Ocean and Us, Women4Oceans, Editor of The Ocean and Us
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