CHN AND HAIDA CITIZENS OPPOSE SEABED MINING NEAR HAIDA TERRITORY
On January 27, the United States released a Request for Information on potential lease areas for seabed mining. including seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska, such as the Kodiak-Bowie Seamount Chain. Mining would target minerals such as nickel, copper, manganese, gold and cobalt.
The US Bureau of Oceans Energy Management then launched a public comment period which closed on March 2. The Council of the Haida Nation submitted a comment outlining the many serious ecological concerns with seabed mining. CHN urged Haida citizens and Haida Gwaii residents to do the same.
Excerpts from the CHN submission:
The SG̲áan K̲ínghlas-Bowie Seamount Marine Protected Area (SK̲-B MPA) is a biologically rich area of three seamounts that are home to high densities of marine species in the North Pacific, supported by a rare and productive habitat. In 1997, this area was designated as a X̲aads siigee tl’a dámaan tl’a k̲ínggiigangs Haida Marine Protected Area by the Council of the Haida Nation (CHN). In 2008, the SK̲-B MPA was designated as a Marine Protected Area under Canada’s Oceans Act through the SK̲-B MPA Regulations (“The Bowie Marine Protected Area Regulations”). The conservation objective of the SK̲-B MPA is to conserve and protect the unique biodiversity and biological productivity of the area's marine ecosystem, including seamounts and the surrounding waters, seabed and subsoil. The SK̲-B MPA is located 180 km offshore from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada, and is only 33 km from the nearest potential mineral lease area (Figure 1).
SK̲-B MPA is designed around three sister seamounts (SG̲áan K̲ínghlas - Bowie, Hodgkins and Davidson/Pierce) and form the southern end of the 900 km Kodiak–Bowie seamount chain. The northern portion of the Kodiak – Bowie seamount chain lies just inshore of the parallel Cobb seamount chain and has been identified as part of the BOEM RFI area. Together, The Kodiak – Bowie and Cobb seamount chains create an open-ocean corridor of stepping-stones that function as a highly interconnected system.
Furthermore, there are other significant seamounts in Haida Territory, within or adjacent to the Offshore MPA Network Zones, including SAUP 5494 and Ts’íidaa isgyáan K̲uuɢ̲a Tuzo Wilson Seamount Complex3. These globally unique and important seamounts are strongly interconnected to seamounts in Haida Territory and Alaska through Haida Eddies that form off southern Haida Gwaii every year.
Given this connectivity, seabed extraction and associated plumes could directly harm shared populations and migratory species, such as X̲aguu • X̲aaguu halibut, Sk̲íl • Sk̲il sablefish and Kún • Kun humpback whales. Other impacts may include disruption of reproduction and recruitment, and nutrient availability, as a prevailing north – south bottom current supplies SK̲-B seamounts with water and larvae from upstream Alaskan seamounts. Mining impacts can also lead to altered food webs, including plankton supporting benthic communities.
Underwater noise may travel hundreds of kilometers beyond the mined site, while sediment and wastewater plumes can disperse tens to hundreds of kilometers, amplified by the region’s dynamic currents and abundant mesoscale eddies. The eddies which are often ~100 km in diameter and over a kilometer deep, concentrate and transport large volumes of water and material between seamounts, sometimes stalling for months over a seamount or seamount cluster or travelling a thousand kilometers across multiple seamounts.
The seamount ecosystems within SK̲-B MPA are ecologically important — supporting long-lived species and unique ecosystems — while also being vulnerable. Cold-water corals and sponges provide habitat for significant biodiversity, including culturally, ecologically and commercially valuable species of fish and invertebrates. These deep-sea species are incredibly slow growing and can live for hundreds to thousands of years. Therefore, any impacts on these habitats would last for centuries or thousands of years, with no chance of a full recovery in the context of climate change. Habitat losses would affect the entire ecosystem and food security.
Both Haida knowledge and science strongly suggests impacts from mining activities within the Alaskan section of the seamount chains would risk serious transboundary harm to the seamounts within the SK̲-B MPA and other important areas within Haida Territory. As such, the Council of the Haida Nation requests that BOEM consider transboundary areas and oceanographic systems that may face serious impacts if seabed mining occurs in the potential lease areas.
The United States and Canada are signatories to the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) and the Pacific Salmon Treaty, where there is agreement to cooperate in the management, research and enhancement of X̲aguu • X̲aaguu halibut and Tsíin • Chiina salmon stocks. The CHN has sat at these tables since 1993.
At the 2026 IPHC held in Bellevue Washington reported on the monitoring, stock status and management strategies. X̲aguu • X̲aaguu Pacific Halibut from California to Alaska was assessed in 2025 as being near historical lows, following over a decade of continued low productivity. Spawning grounds extend from the southern tip of Haida Gwaii at Gangx̲id Kun, off the north of Dixon Entrance and throughout the Gulf of Alaska. Seabed mining in areas adjacent to where X̲aguu • X̲aaguu halibut reside and spawn could be detrimental to the stock’s ability to reproduce successfully and increase stress on this depleted stock through direct disturbance from machinery, noise pollution and release of sediment plumes to surrounding areas.
Researchers have raised concerns regarding the cumulative effects of seabed mining, from direct removal of habitat and the food-web implications across benthic and pelagic zones. Wastewater plumes are likely to disrupt food webs by diluting organic matter, critical for zooplankton and micronekton food webs (i.e. transboundary Tsíin • Chiina salmon) and introduce inorganic particles. But there has been limited research to understand the impact of seabed mining waste (seafloor sediments, nodules) on culturally, ecologically and commercially important transboundary species, such as X̲aguu • X̲aaguu halibut and Tsíin • Chiina salmon.
Although the potential mineral lease areas are not within Haida Territory, the impacts of potential seabed mining that would occur 33 km away from a Haida Marine Protected Area would be felt within Haida Territory.
In 2000, the Haida Nation implemented a moratorium on seabed mining. The cultural and ecological impacts on Haida waters outweigh any potential economic gain and do not align with Haida laws. The CHN urges BOEM to not include the Gulf of Alaska seamounts and adjacent areas to be leased, including the Kodiak-Bowie seamount chain, Denson, Dickens and Welker seamounts, and incorporate the recommendations and science cited.
For more information on seabed mining and to read the full letter CHN submitted to the bureau, visit haidanation.ca/public-notices/community-update-seabed-mining