Picture an ocean world so deep and dark it feels like another planet – where creatures glow and life survives under crushing pressure.
This is the midwater zone, a hidden ecosystem that begins 650 feet (200 meters) below the ocean surface and sustains life across our planet. It includes the twilight zone and the midnight zone, where strange and delicate animals thrive in the near absence of sunlight. Whales and commercially valuable fish such as tuna rely on animals in this zone for food. But this unique ecosystem faces an unprecedented threat.
在海面200米以下，中層水域是個我們所看不見的生態系統，它分為暮光區和深夜區。奇怪而脆弱的動物在那裡茁壯成長，鯨魚和金槍魚等有商業價值的魚類以這些生物為食。
As the demand for electric car batteries and smartphones grows, mining companies are turning their attention to the deep sea, where precious metals such as nickel and cobalt can be found in potato-size nodules sitting on the ocean floor. 海底遍布馬鈴薯大小的鎳和鈷等貴金屬塊，已被採礦公司注意到。
Deep-sea mining research and experiments over the past 40 years have shown how the removal of nodules can put seafloor creatures at risk by disrupting their habitats. However, the process can also pose a danger to what lives above it, in the midwater ecosystem. If future deep-sea mining operations release sediment plumes into the water column, as proposed, the debris could interfere with animals’ feeding, disrupt food webs and alter animals’ behaviors.
40年來的深海採礦研究和實驗發現，移除這些富含多種金屬的塊結會破壞海底生物的棲息環境，還可能影響到水域上層的生物。深海採礦作業的碎片若釋放回去，還會干擾破壞海生物的食物鏈，以及改變生物行為。
As an oceanographer studying marine life in an area of the Pacific rich in these nodules, I believe that before countries and companies rush to mine, we need to understand the risks. Is humanity willing to risk collapsing parts of an ecosystem we barely understand for resources that are important for our future? Alexus Cazares-Nuesser是夏威夷大學海洋生物領域的博士生，專門研究太平洋富含這些貴金屬塊結的區域生態。她相信在各國公司爭相開採之前，需要先了解
破壞一個未知生態環境的風險。
Beneath the Pacific Ocean southeast of Hawaii, a hidden treasure trove of polymetallic nodules can be found scattered across the seafloor. These nodules form as metals in seawater or sediment collect around a nucleus, such as a piece of shell or shark’s tooth. They grow at an incredibly slow rate of a few millimeters per million years. The nodules are rich in metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese – key ingredients for batteries, smartphones, wind turbines and military hardware. 遍布在夏威夷東南部的太平洋海底(Clarion-Clipperton海域)，這些塊結是由海水或沉積物中的鎳、鈷和錳金屬聚集(例如在貝殼或鯊魚牙齒上)而形成，每百萬年大約僅生長幾毫米，卻是電池、智慧型手機、風力渦輪機和一些軍事硬件的重要成分。
As demand for these technologies increases, mining companies are targeting this remote area, known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, as well as a few other zones with similar nodules around the So far, only test mining has been carried out. However, plans for full-scale commercial mining are rapidly advancing. 到目前為止我們只在少數海域進行了試採，然而全面商業採礦計劃正在迅速推進。
Exploratory deep-sea mining began in the 1970s, and the International Seabed Authority was established in 1994 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to regulate it. But it was not until 2022 that The Metals Company and Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. fully tested the first integrated nodule collection system in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. 深海開採勘探始於1970年代，1994年聯合國海底管理局(ISA)為監管開採而成立，2022年有家機構在Clarion-Clipperton海域第一次測試了一個綜合的塊結收集系統。
With the International Seabed Authority still debating regulations, The Metals Company appealed to President Donald Trump and applauded his order on April 24, 2025, to expedite U.S.-issued licenses for seabed mining outside national waters under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries that never ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and set up its own licensing regime.world.
ISA仍在辯論開採規則，他們稱讚川普4月24日的總統令，請他加快美國發放外海海底採礦執照的速度。美國是世界上少數尚未批准接納《聯合國海洋公約》的國家之一，我們只建立了自己的開採許可證制度。
Several countries have called for a moratorium on seabed mining until the risks are better understood. 有幾個國家呼籲暫停搞這些海底採礦。
The mining process is invasive. Collector vehicles scrape along the ocean floor as they scoop up nodules and stir up sediments. This removes habitats used by marine organisms and threatens biodiversity, potentially causing irreversible damage to seafloor ecosystems. Once collected, the nodules are brought up with seawater and sediments through a pipe to a ship, where they’re separated from the waste. 收集車會沿海底鏟起塊結和攪動沉積物，可能對海底生態系統造成不可逆轉的破壞。塊結隨海水和沈積物用管道輸送到船上，再與廢物分離。
The leftover slurry of water, sediment and crushed nodules is then dumped back into the middle of the water column, creating plumes. While the discharge depth is still under discussion, some mining operators propose releasing the waste at midwater depths, around 4,000 feet (1,200 meters). 剩餘的水、沉積物和破片隨後被倒回水中，排放多深還在討論中，有人建議排放到1200米深處。
However, there is a critical unknown: The ocean is dynamic, constantly shifting with currents, and scientists don’t fully understand how these mining plumes will behave once released into the midwater zone. 然而海洋是動態的，洋流不斷變化，科學家們並不完全了解這些採礦羽流一旦釋放到中層水域會如何表現。
These clouds of debris could disperse over large areas, potentially harming marine life and disrupting ecosystems. Picture a volcanic eruption – not of lava, but of fine, murky sediments expanding throughout the water column, affecting everything in its path. 這些碎片雲可能會擴散到大片區域，可能好像海底火山爆發一樣危害整個水域的生態系統。
Sediment plumes in the water column could harm these animals. Fine sediments could clog respiratory structures in fish and feeding structures of filter feeders. For animals that feed on suspended particles, the plumes could dilute food resources with nutritionally poor material. Additionally, by blocking light, plumes might interfere with visual cues essential for bioluminescent organisms and visual predators. 這個生態系統是浮游生物(隨洋流漂流的微小動物)和微型游水生物(包括以浮游生物為食的小魚、魷魚和甲殼類)的家，採礦引起的細微沉積物可能會堵塞魚的呼吸結構和攝食結構；阻擋光線的羽流還可能會干擾這些生物的發光和視覺。
For delicate creatures such as jellyfish and siphonophores – gelatinous animals that can grow over 100 feet long – sediment accumulation can interfere with buoyancy and survival. A recent study found that jellies exposed to sediments increased their mucous production, a common stress response that is energetically expensive, and their expression of genes related to wound repair. 對於水母和管水母，沉積物會影響它們的浮力和生存。研究發現暴露在碎片雲中的水母會增生粘液--一種常見的耗能壓力反應。
Additionally, noise pollution from machinery can interfere with how species communicate and navigate. 機器噪音會干擾生物之間的通訊和導航能力。
Disturbances like these have the potential to disrupt ecosystems, extending far beyond the discharge depth. Declines in zooplankton populations can harm fish and other marine animal populations that rely on them for food.
此類幹擾的影響範圍恐怕遠超排放深度。浮游生物數量的減少會危害以它們為食的魚類，以及其它海洋物種。
The midwater zone also plays a vital role in regulating Earth’s climate. Phytoplankton at the ocean’s surface capture atmospheric carbon, which zooplankton consume and transfer through the food chain. When zooplankton and fish respire, excrete waste, or sink after death, they contribute to carbon export to the deep ocean, where it can be sequestered for centuries. The process naturally removes planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 中層水區調節地球氣候：海洋表面的浮游植物捕獲大氣中的碳，浮游生物則食用這些碳，它們呼吸、排泄廢物或死後下沉時，會將碳送到深海，封存在那裡許多世紀。
Despite growing interest in deep-sea mining, much of the deep ocean, particularly the midwater zone, remains poorly understood. A 2023 study in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone found that 88% to 92% of species in the region are new to science. 儘管人們對深海採礦的興趣日益濃厚，但人們對深海，特別是中層水域的了解很少。2023年在Clarion-Clipperton海域的研究發現，那裡88-92%的物種對於科學家來說都是新發現。
Current mining regulations focus primarily on the seafloor, overlooking broader ecosystem impacts. The International Seabed Authority is preparing to discuss key decisions on future seabed mining in July 2025, including rules and guidelines relating to mining waste, discharge depths and environmental protection. 目前的採礦法規主要關注海底，忽略了生態系統。ISA準備在2025年7月討論未來海底採礦的重要決定，包括與採礦廢棄物、排放深度和環境保護有關的規則和指導方針。
These decisions could set the framework for large-scale commercial mining in ecologically important areas such as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Yet the consequences for marine life are not clear. Without comprehensive studies on the impact of seafloor mining techniques, the world risks making irreversible choices that could harm these fragile ecosystems. 若不全面研究海底採礦技術的影響，世界就有可能做出不可逆轉的選擇，從而損害精緻的生態系統。
