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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment

Trump’s deep-sea mining plan flouts international law

Tumon Bay, Guam, with turquoise ocean, coral reefs, and luxury resorts along the white sand beach.
US territories in the Pacific, including Guam (pictured), oppose the plan to lease out millions of hectares of seabed near the Mariana Trench for deep sea exploration. Photograph: Artimente/Alamy

Your article on Donald Trump’s plan to lease millions of hectares of seabed in the Pacific for deep-sea mining correctly points to the ecological disaster that this could unleash (US territories hit out at Trump plan to explore deep sea mining in the Pacific, 24 August).

However, it does not mention that this plan contravenes international law in the form of Unclos, the UN convention on the law of the sea, which has been ratified by 171 countries and the European Union. The US has not ratified it, but since 1982 has agreed to abide by its rules and procedures.

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