President Donald Trump is exploring the possibility of opening over 113 million acres of Alaskan waters to seabed mining, a move that follows similar proposals in recent years targeting areas near American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. This expansive proposal for Alaska, a region rich with Indigenous populations whose ancestral connections to the ocean run deep, is igniting significant cultural and environmental anxieties.

Deep-sea mining, the process of extracting mineral deposits from the ocean floor for use in products like electric vehicle batteries and military technology, remains an industry in its nascent stages, with no commercial operations currently underway. The industry’s development has been hampered by a lack of established regulations for permits in international waters and by widespread concerns regarding the environmental consequences of disturbing ecosystems that have taken millennia to form. Scientists have issued stark warnings that such practices could irrevocably damage fisheries and fragile marine habitats, with recovery potentially taking thousands of years. Indigenous communities worldwide have also voiced strong opposition, asserting their fundamental rights to free, prior, and informed consent regarding any development within their traditional territories.

Despite these reservations, President Trump has expressed robust support for the deep-sea mining sector, viewing it as a strategic initiative to position the United States as a global leader in the production of critical minerals. His administration has also actively pursued opportunities for U.S. companies to mine in international waters, seemingly circumventing the ongoing global deliberations on establishing comprehensive international mining regulations.

Kate Finn, a citizen of the Osage Nation and the executive director of the Tallgrass Institute Center for Indigenous Economic Stewardship, voiced her apprehension that the burgeoning seabed mining industry might replicate the historical missteps of land-based mining operations. "The terrestrial mining industry has not gotten it right with regards to Indigenous peoples," Finn stated. "Indigenous peoples have the right to give and to withdraw consent. Mining companies themselves need to design their operations around that right."

It remains unclear which companies, if any, have expressed interest in pursuing mining activities off the coast of Alaska. A representative from The Metals Company, a prominent publicly traded firm within the deep-sea mining sector, indicated that the company has no current plans for expansion into Alaskan waters. Similarly, Oliver Gunasekara, the chief executive officer of Impossible Metals, a startup that has previously advocated for mining exploration near American Samoa despite local opposition, stated that his company is not considering operations in Alaska at this time. "We do not have current plans in Alaska, as we do not know what resources are in the ocean," Gunasekara explained. "If there are good nodule resources, we would be very interested."

The potential lease area under consideration is vast, exceeding the landmass of California. Cooper Freeman, director of Alaska operations for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, highlighted the extraordinary breadth of this proposed area, noting that it encompasses ecologically sensitive waters that are already protected from bottom trawling, a fishing method involving heavy nets dragged across the seafloor. "A lot of these areas, particularly in the Aleutians, have been put off limits for bottom trawling because there are nurseries for commercially important fish and ecologically important species and habitat," Freeman elaborated.

In its official announcement, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the federal agency tasked with overseeing deep-sea mining, indicated that the proposed exploration zone extends to depths of over four miles near the Aleutian Trench and encompasses the abyssal plains of the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, reaching depths as low as 3.5 miles. BOEM has specifically expressed interest in areas identified by the U.S. Geological Survey as potentially rich in critical minerals and heavy mineral sands along the Seward Peninsula and the Bering Sea coast.

These waters are adjacent to a state that is home to more than 200 distinct Alaska Native nations. Jasmine Monroe, who identifies as Inupiaq, Yupik, and Cherokee and grew up in the village of Elim in Alaska’s Bering Strait region, expressed her growing concern about the potential impacts of this proposal on the subsistence seafood that her community depends on. Her concerns were heightened after learning that BOEM had initiated a 30-day public comment period on the potential leases. "We eat beluga meat, we eat walrus, we eat seal, we eat whale," she said. "Whatever happens in the ocean, it really does affect our way of life." Monroe further articulated a sense of disempowerment, stating, "It just feels like we don’t have any say on whether it happens or not. It just feels like the system is set up for failure for us."

The Alaska Federation of Natives, an organization representing Indigenous peoples of Alaska, did not respond to requests for comment. Monroe, who actively works on water quality issues at the nonprofit Alaska Community Action on Toxics, described feeling disempowered by what she characterized as a top-down approach and the compressed timelines for public input.

Kate Finn from the Tallgrass Institute reiterated that Indigenous peoples possess the right under international law to provide or withhold consent for activities within their territories. She cautioned that U.S. federal regulations alone might not adequately ensure that companies adhere to international legal standards, particularly in an environment of increasing deregulation. "Companies will miss that if they’re only relying on the U.S. federal government for consultation," Finn warned. She also emphasized that Indigenous nations have their own distinct economic and cultural priorities, and some have successfully collaborated with mining companies under carefully negotiated terms. "There are Indigenous peoples who work well with companies and invite mining into their territories, and there is a track record there as well," Finn noted.

Monroe acknowledged that seabed mining could potentially supply minerals essential for technologies like electric vehicle batteries, similar to other mining proposals she has opposed in Alaska, including a graphite mine that posed a risk of water pollution. However, she pointed out that electric vehicles are not a present reality for her community, and she believes the environmental and cultural costs are simply too high. "It really feels like another false solution," she concluded.