5,000 New Species Prove the "Ocean Desert" Deep Sea Mining Claim Is Wrong

In September 2021, Time magazine profiled Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company (TMC), and his push to mine the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a stretch of international seabed between Hawaii and Mexico. In that profile, Barron called the CCZ "the most desert-like place on the planet," arguing that mining the deep sea does less environmental harm than mining a rainforest because there's supposedly so little life down there to disturb. That single line has been repeated for years as justification for deep sea mining. Andrew puts it to the test.

The science tells a very different story. A 2016 survey of the CCZ measured real, on-site abundance of larger seafloor animals and found meaningful densities of megafauna, plus hundreds of individuals per square meter of smaller sediment-dwelling species. A 2023 species inventory led by the UK's Natural History Museum and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts documented more than 5,000 species in the CCZ, with the large majority entirely new to science. New species are still turning up, including a batch of amphipods described in 2026. And a landmark study on nodule-dependent species found that more than half of the megafauna living in these nodule fields rely directly on the nodules themselves, the very rocks TMC wants to extract, as the only hard surface available to grow on in an otherwise soft, muddy seafloor.

Andrew walks through what happens when the nodules are removed, why TMC appears to be pursuing a path through the Trump administration rather than the International Seabed Authority, and what's at stake for communities near the Northern Mariana Islands, where a new mining lease is moving forward despite more than 60,000 public comments in opposition. This is a fact-check episode: quote first, then the evidence, so listeners can judge for themselves whether "desert" is an accurate description of one of the most biodiverse deep-sea ecosystems studied to date.

Takeaways:

• Gerard Barron (CEO, The Metals Company) told Time magazine in September 2021 that the Clarion Clipperton Zone is "the most desert-like place on the planet."
• A 2023 Natural History Museum / Pew-funded inventory documented more than 5,000 species in the CCZ, with the large majority new to science.
• A 2016 study found meaningful abundance of both megafauna and smaller sediment-dwelling species across CCZ survey sites, not the near-absence of life the "desert" framing implies.
• More than half of the megafaunal species in CCZ nodule fields depend directly on the polymetallic nodules as a hard surface to grow on, the same nodules targeted for mining.
• A 2025 study of an actual industrial mining trial found significantly lower animal abundance at the disturbed site compared to untouched seafloor nearby.
• TMC is pursuing a mining pathway through the Trump administration rather than the International Seabed Authority.
• A proposed lease near the Northern Mariana Islands and the Mariana Trench marine protected area has moved forward despite more than 60,000 public comments opposing it.