Trump Pushes Seabed Mining Past Pacific Island Opposition — SkimNews
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- The Trump administration announced plans to auction 31 million acres of seafloor around American Samoa in mid-November and 67 million acres around the Marianas in December — about half bordering a marine monument established by President George W. Bush — targeting copper, manganese, nickel, and rare earths to counter China's supply dominance.
- Governor Lou Leon Guerrero of Guam said she first learned of the mining plan from a journalist's article on November 12 and immediately called CNMI Governor David Apatang and Interior official Bill Hague to express opposition, recalling that Hague assured her mining would not proceed without community support.
- Earthjustice filed lawsuits against the administration on behalf of conservation groups in American Samoa and the Mariana Islands, arguing the government has not yet determined whether seabed mining would harm species protected under the Endangered Species Act, including whales and sea turtles.
- Unlike neighboring independent Pacific nations such as Samoa (40 miles away), US territories cannot decide whether to allow mining in their waters — American Samoa's territorial ban extends only three nautical miles from shore, versus the 200-mile radius the federal government claims jurisdiction over.
- Territorial residents cannot vote for president, have no voting representation in Congress, and under the law extending US citizenship to Guamanians Congress can overturn any law passed by the island's legislature, a structural imbalance activists call 'an insidious result of the colonial framework.'
- The American Samoa announcement came on Manu'a Flag Day, which commemorates chiefs signing a treaty bringing the islands under US sovereignty more than a century ago in exchange for respect of Samoan property rights — an anniversary local attorney J.V. Langkilde called 'a little bit backwards' timing.
- Independent Pacific nations are split: Naoero (formerly Nauru) and Tonga support the industry and Tonga's prime minister signed a research agreement with the Trump administration, while Palau has banned seabed mining and more than 45 countries back an international moratorium.
Why it matters: The November and December auctions would lock in industrial access to nearly 100 million acres of seafloor before any federal environmental review or territorial consent — affecting waters that hold tuna making up over 99% of American Samoa's exports, in places where residents cannot vote for president and have no congressional representation to block the leases.
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