Trump administration proposes massive seabed mining operation off alaska despite indigenous opposition

The Trump administration is considering opening more than 113 million acres of Alaskan waters—an area larger than California—to commercial seabed mining, sparking fierce opposition from Indigenous communities whose livelihoods depend on these marine ecosystems. The proposal targets mineral-rich areas up to 4 miles deep near the Aleutian Trench and the abyssal plains of the Bering Sea, where companies could extract materials used in electric vehicle batteries and military technology.

For Alaska Native communities, the plan represents another threat to their ancestral relationship with the ocean. “We eat beluga meat, we eat walrus, we eat seal, we eat whale,” explained Jasmine Monroe, an Inupiaq, Yupik, and Cherokee resident of Elim village. “Whatever happens in the ocean, it really does affect our way of life.” Monroe and other Indigenous advocates criticize the short 30-day public comment period and top-down approach that gives communities little meaningful input on projects affecting their territories.

The proposal extends Trump’s broader push to establish U.S. dominance in critical mineral production through seabed mining, despite the industry remaining largely experimental. Scientists warn that scraping minerals from ocean floors that formed over millions of years could devastate fragile ecosystems and fisheries, with recovery potentially taking millennia. The targeted waters include ecologically sensitive areas already protected from bottom trawling due to their role as nurseries for commercially important fish species.

While no companies have yet committed to mining in Alaskan waters, Indigenous rights advocates like Kate Finn of the Tallgrass Institute emphasize that communities have the right under international law to consent to activities in their territories—a standard that federal consultation requirements alone may not meet.