Environmentalists aim to halt first-ever US deep-sea mining sale

Two conservation groups, Fa'asao Amerika Samoa and the Conservation Council for Hawaii, sued the National Marine Fisheries Service and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to block a planned November lease sale covering more than 31 million acres of seabed off American Samoa. The lawsuit challenges a four-page federal letter concluding the sale was unlikely to harm roughly 60 endangered or threatened species, including blue, fin, sei and sperm whales, all five local sea turtle populations, and five threatened coral species.

The plaintiffs say the agency's review covered only preliminary activities like sonar surveys and seafloor sampling while omitting the actual mineral extraction the sale is meant to enable. They cite limited mining tests elsewhere showing sediment plumes that can smother coral reefs more than 60 miles away, with recovery estimated to take over a century.

No commercial seabed mining operation exists anywhere in the world yet, and the plaintiffs aren't challenging the government's authority to hold the sale — only the conclusion that it's harmless. A final leasing notice is due at least 30 days before the Nov. 19 sale, leaving little time for courts to weigh in.

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