Environment Life

Sharks and rays threatened by deep-sea mining

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October 8, 2025
3 min read

Sharks and rays threatened by deep-sea mining

The habitats of species of shark, ray, and chimaera (known as ghost sharks) overlap with areas which see deep-sea mining, new research published in in Current Biology and led by University of Hawai’i at Mānoa oceanographers has found. Almost two thirds of these animals already face extinction thanks to human impact, with deep-sea mining having the potential to increase their risk.

“Deep-sea mining is a new potential threat to this group of animals which are both vital in the ocean ecosystem and to human culture and identity,” said Aaron Judah, lead author of the study and oceanography graduate student in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). “By identifying and calling attention to this threat and recommending potential conservation pathways, I hope we will be better positioned to support healthy shark, ray, and chimaera populations into the future.”

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Judah collaborated with an international team, overlaying global maps of species ranges of sharks, rays, and chimaeras, created by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group with contract areas and reserved areas allocated for deep-sea mining by the International Seabed Authority. The research accounted for the reproduction of each species and how deep they dive to estimate the impact that mining can have on them.

Skates and chimaeras for example, lay their eggs on the sea floor, meaning that mining vehicles threaten their nurseries.

They studied species of sharks and rays, including the whale shark, manta ray, the megamouth shark, and some lesser-known deep-sea species including the pygmy shark, chocolate skate, and point-nosed chimaera.

They discovered that 30 species could be impacted by discharge plumes and 25 of the 30 could be impacted by disruptions on the seafloor due to the mining. Because many of these animals live in a variety of habitats or dive deeply, mining impacts can overlap over half of the depth range of 17 species.

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