Groups from the Marianas and around the nation said more than 60,000 comments, letters and petition signatures have been collected opposing a plan to allow seabed mining near the Mariana Trench.
The deadline for submitting comments to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was 11:59 p.m. Jan. 12, Eastern time.
The federal government wants to lease more than 35.5 million acres of the ocean floor east of the Marianas to companies that would extract critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel and copper.
While the minerals are needed for high-tech electronics and the defense industry, scientists say the long-term environmental consequences of seabed mining are unknown.
During a webinar on Tuesday morning, hosted by Right to Democracy and the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, representatives from citizen groups discussed their efforts to reach community members during the 60-day comment period.
Guam Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio told participants that seabed mining poses an existential threat to the people of Guam and the Northern Marianas.
“I would say it's a very violent proposal for deep-sea mining with limited research and with limited ethical supervision or proposed ethical parameters," Tenorio said. "It really is a big threat.”
He suggested that the organizations reach out to people who have ties to the Pacific islands but currently live in the 50 states, where residents have voting representation in both houses of Congress.
“The only way I see us putting a big opposition and major roadblocks is getting the Congress to act and getting congressional legislation to prohibit this very violent and radical activity that's planned in the waters off of all our islands,” he said.
Now that the comment period has ended, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will sort and analyze the comments.
In its request for comments, the bureau has stated that it plans to engage with the Indigenous people of the CNMI “about their economic, environmental, cultural and public health concerns” related to deep-sea mining.
