Deep-Sea Mining Rejected by Palau, Fiji, and Samoa

Palau President Surangel Whipps speaks as he greets tourists from Taiwan during their arrival in Koror after Taiwan and Palau launched a rare holiday travel bubble as the two diplomatic allies try to kickstart their battered tourist industries after successfully keeping COVID-19 infections at bay on April 1, 2021. Richard W. Brooks/AFP via Getty Images

The Pacific nations of Palau, Fiji, and Samoa have formed a new alliance to call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, citing the industry’s potential hazards to ocean ecology.

“We believe it is not worth the risk. We ask all of you to support that deep-sea mining increases the vulnerability of the seabed floor and marine life,” Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. said at the U.N. Ocean Conference in Lisbon on Monday.