A legal fight over American Samoa deep-sea mining intensified Tuesday as Earthjustice sued the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to stop plans to auction waters around the U.S. territory for potential seabed extraction.
The nonprofit filed the complaint on behalf of Fa‘asao Amerika Samoa and the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, asking a federal judge to order the fisheries service to halt its process and comply with the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws.
American Samoa deep-sea mining plan challenged
The lawsuit targets the administration’s move to lease tracts covering roughly 33 million acres of seabed off American Samoa for minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese, materials used in batteries and electronics. The filing argues the government must first ensure mining would not damage critical habitats or push vulnerable species toward extinction.
Earthjustice called a recent determination by the fisheries service that the leases would not affect critical habitat or endangered or threatened species “arbitrary and capricious.” The suit states that a healthy ocean supports Samoan households, protects coastlines and underpins cultural practices that date back more than a thousand years.
The complaint highlights that many species around American Samoa migrate to Hawaiian waters, including sea turtles known locally as i‘a sa, meaning sacred fish. Whales, sharks and giant manta rays are also regarded as sacred in American Samoa, where catching or harming such species is banned.
According to the filing, waters around the territory support rare and diverse marine life, from shallow and mesophotic coral reefs to sponges, crabs, deep-sea cucumbers and hundreds of coral and fish species. The region provides habitat to five endangered sea turtle populations and four endangered whale species, along with five threatened coral species and four other threatened animals including the giant manta ray.
The proposed leasing area sits about 57 miles from the Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
Regulatory backdrop and wider Pacific stakes
The administration has sought to speed up mining permits even as many nations have urged a moratorium or ban over concerns about noise, light and sediment plumes. Earthjustice noted that no commercial seabed mining operation has begun anywhere in the world.
Internationally, the U.N.-affiliated International Seabed Authority has issued exploration licenses to nearly two dozen contractors but has not approved commercial mining. Much exploration centers on the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a 1.7 million-square-mile region between Hawai‘i and Mexico.
Because the United States has not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oversees U.S. exploration and commercial recovery of seabed minerals. A NOAA fisheries spokesperson said the agency could not comment on pending litigation.
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New leasing notice in the Northern Mariana Islands
On Monday, the federal government published a proposed leasing notice for 69 million acres of waters around the Northern Mariana Islands. Matt Giacona, acting director of the Marine Minerals Administration, said critical minerals are essential to national security, economic strength and resource sovereignty.
He said the United States cannot afford to rely on foreign nations for resources that power the economy and support the defense industrial base.
The move drew swift criticism from scientists and environmental advocates. Nick Katkevich, an oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it is wrong to advance deep-sea mining plans when nearby communities are calling for them to be stopped, adding the projects are too experimental and risky for marine life.
The region provides habitat to five endangered sea turtle populations and four endangered whale species, along with five threatened coral species and four other threatened animals including the giant manta ray, echoing concerns raised in research on spinner dolphin populations off Kona.
The proposed leasing area sits about 57 miles from the Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System.
