Will Ocean Seabed Mining Delay The Discovery Of Potential Coronavirus Vaccines?

Will Ocean Seabed Mining Delay The Discovery Of Potential Coronavirus Vaccines?

Last week among the COVID-19 headlines, David Attenborough made a plea calling for Deep Ocean Seabed Mining to be banned.. We are just learning the true potential and value of life in the deep ocean.. Not all will come from the ocean, but natural products will be a crucial part, given that COVID-19 jumped the species barrier to impact humans.. The WHO has called the Climate Crisis a Health Crisis , and as the ocean warms, the risks to humans rise with more novel diseases and less biology with which to help combat them.. Marine genetic resources are irreplaceable products of nature that play a critical role in modern medicine and industrial processes today.. A recently discovered deep sea microbe in 2014 from 2km depth in the Indian Ocean, nesiotobacter exalbescens , efficiently degrades hydrocarbons (benzene and toluene which are common soil and water pollutants), and is a potential tool for environmental cleanup , especially oil spills in the ocean.. The alcanivorax bacteria was discovered at 2km depth on the East Pacific Rise in the Pacific Ocean, close to where Seabed Mining is due to begin in the Clipperton Zone.. At the same time