Cook Islands is set to host the international Deep Ocean Symposium on Thursay to further explore the impact of seabed exploration and “mining on our future”.

E Puna Vai Mārama and Te Ipukarea Society are presenting the symposium asking the overarching question, ‘Is mining the seabed undermining our future?’

A range of experts on environmental, economic and community impact of seabed exploration and mining locally and internationally will attend the gathering.

They includeHawaiian Elder of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Advisory Council and Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group, Solomon Pili Kahoʻohalahala, known as Uncle Sol, and the leader of the Seafloor Ecology and Biogeochemistry research group at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Andrew Sweetman, whose research on the oxygenic properties of deep sea nodules reached global audiences when released earlier this year.

The symposium will be held at the University of the South Pacific Cook Islands, and followed by an evening event, a screening of Deep Sea Rising, from 5 to 7pm.

Meanwhile, Cook Islands is currently in its third year of a five-year exploration phase to determine the feasibility of deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules rich in metals needed in the green energy transition.

Three companies were granted a seabed minerals exploration licence in 2022 to carry out exploration work. As part of the exploration process, these companies must review the associated environmental risks and if they can prove that mining is viable, the government will award them a mining licence.

Last month, the Cook Islands government revealed that it sees greater economic potential in seabed mining, which has fuelled concerns from the Opposition.

Deep-sea mining for polymetallic nodules rich in cobalt, copper, nickel and manganese has the potential to transform the country’s earning to “much, much greater levels”, according to Prime Minister Mark Brown.

In a previous interview with Cook Islands News, Brown said that Cook Islands moved from a country that was agricultural-based exports, earning millions of dollars a year, to now a country that makes its income from tourism, earning hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Tourism’s contribution to the country’s economy is set to cross half a billion dollars this year, with projected earnings of $520 million for 2024, representing 73 per cent of the GDP.