Bringing Transparency to the Deep: A Look at the Technology Powering Deep-Sea Mining Watch
- By Annie Mejaes and Anna Sanders
- Published
The deep ocean has long been one of Earth’s last frontiers — vast, mysterious and critical to our planet’s health. Now, as human activity extends deeper into these remote waters, we need tools that can help us see what’s happening, when and where.
This month marks the launch of the new Deep-Sea Mining Watch portal — a collaboration between the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Global Fishing Watch. Built on the Global Fishing Watch platform, this public portal gives unprecedented visibility into vessels exploring the deep sea for minerals — opening a new chapter in ocean monitoring, transparency and accountability.
At the heart of this initiative lies Global Fishing Watch’s proven technology — systems originally developed to track fishing activity globally in near-real time. By adapting these same methods, we’re demonstrating how our platform can illuminate many types of human activity in the ocean — from fishing and shipping to research, energy exploration and now deep-sea mining.
This approach reflects our open ocean project vision — a foundation for global ocean transparency that allows anyone to monitor activity, understand pressures on marine ecosystems and take informed action.
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A public, transparent platform for deep-sea activity
The Deep-Sea Mining Watch portal, now hosted on the Global Fishing Watch platform, offers a neutral, science-based view of vessel activity. Built on automatic identification system (AIS) data, the platform maps the movements of 55 identified deep sea mining exploration vessels across more than 1.5 million square kilometers of the international seabed — covering International Seabed Authority (ISA) license areas and national waters.
Users can explore vessel tracks across time and space, identify individual ships and investigate where and when they may be involved in mineral prospecting, environmental surveys, or equipment testing.
Key Features
Deep-Sea Mining Watch is a portal within the Global Fishing Watch platform, designed to make monitoring deep-sea mining activity simple, transparent and actionable. By leveraging the platform’s powerful tools and rich datasets, it allows researchers, journalists, policymakers and civil society advocates to track vessels, analyze activity and uncover patterns across the international seabed. The portal’s features turn complex data into clear, actionable insights — so you can see who is operating where and what they’re doing.
Filter what matters. The platform lets you cut through noise and focus on the regions, resources and activities most relevant to your work. You can filter vessel presence by:
- Regional license area: Focus on specific ISA region license areas. These regions include the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Northwest Pacific, Indian Ocean, South Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic as defined by ISA.
- Area type: Focus on each area type including exploration areas, areas reserved for developing states and areas protected for environmental interest.
- Contractor: Focus on areas by specific contractors holding exploration licenses in the region.
- Seabed mineral resource type: Focus on specific ISA license zones by seabed mineral resource type, including polymetallic nodules (PMN), Polymetallic Sulphides (PMS) and Cobalt-Rich Ferromanganese Crusts (CFC).
Generate area insight reports. Whether you’re looking for a global snapshot or a detailed view of a single licensed block, activity reports make it simple to generate summaries at any scale. Regional reports are available across all major ISA regions, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) or Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) helping you quickly identify trends, patterns or areas of emerging interest. View a report summarizing activity specific to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
Track vessel activity in near real-time. With access to AIS data from 2012 up to 72 hours ago, the platform allows you to watch vessel movements unfold over time. Click any vessel to explore its history — speed changes, depth, movement patterns and more. Each vessel profile surfaces activity and identity insights – revealing port visits, encounters, loitering behavior and AIS disabling events.
Build and share your workspace. Save searches, track areas of interest and create custom reports. Share your workspace easily with colleagues for collaborative analysis.
See the bigger picture. Overlay datasets to visualize overlaps between mining, fishing and other human activity. Understand how pressures interact across the ocean and spot potential conflicts.
Partnership for greater impact
Collaboration sits at the heart of Global Fishing Watch’s impact and myriad successes. Through initiatives such as Marine Manager, a portal developed in partnership with Dona Bertarelli, Global Fishing Watch has worked alongside governments, non-profits and researchers to craft tailored solutions that deliver strong policy and ocean governance wins. The updated Deep-Sea Mining Watch portal is no different. Here, the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory brings scientific expertise in deep-sea systems, while Global Fishing Watch contributes the technical infrastructure, product development and open-access data systems. This model of co-creation shows how trusted partnerships can translate complex ocean data into public, science-based insights. Together we’re advancing transparency, accountability and evidence-based decision-making for ocean stewardship.
Visibility amid growing concern
The launch of the new Deep-Sea Mining Watch comes at a pivotal time. With the deep-sea mining debate intensifying and some nations signaling plans to move forward outside the ISA framework, transparent information is essential.
Deep-sea mining poses major environmental risks — from loss of biodiversity to disruption of habitats and ecosystem services like carbon storage and fisheries support. By providing a clear, factual view of vessel activity, the new platform offers a foundation for informed dialogue and responsible decision-making.
Explore, collaborate and learn
We invite everyone who cares about the ocean to explore, engage and contribute:
- Explore the Deep-Sea Mining Watch portal to access the new tool. View tutorial on how to analyze deep-sea mining vessel activity.
- Set up a workspace: Create a free account on the Global Fishing Watch platform to customize views, save searches, and analyze vessel activity. View other platform tutorials.
- Partner with us: Interested in applying this technology to other ocean issues — such as climate, pollution, shipping, aquaculture or conservation? Email us at [email protected].
- Learn more about the Open Ocean project: Discover how we’re scaling our platform to monitor all human activity at sea by 2030.
Towards an open ocean future
Deep-Sea Mining Watch is more than a monitoring tool — it’s a glimpse into the next chapter of ocean transparency. As new industries emerge and exploration advances, open data will be critical to ensuring the ocean’s future remains a shared responsibility.
Together, through technology, partnership and science, we can make the invisible visible — and help safeguard the deep sea for generations to come.