America’s First Ocean Mining Experiment Was Lost to History — Until Now

The Post & Courier has a long history of reporting on the ocean and how it shapes life in South Carolina. We’re planning to further highlight the region’s environmental and economic connections to the ocean environment. This time, we’re reporting on the region’s response to climate change—a transition toward electrified transportation—and its possible toll on the deep sea.

The results of this little-known government expedition to revisit America’s first deep-sea mining site and assess ecosystem recovery have not previously been reported. Our efforts to explain these results within the context of a renewed push for commercial deep-sea mining will involve travel to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Norfolk, Virginia.

We will be the first to report on this discovery just offshore of Charleston, one that has huge implications for the United Nations' ongoing deep-sea mining talks as well as South Carolina’s own manufacturing sector.