The desire to explore the deep ocean for minerals, such as copper, cobalt, and manganese is not new, but only now are companies pushing for commercial-scale mining. Photo: 360info
Hawaii has banned seabed mining, signing the new law into effect this week on Tuesday morning.
Its government says the move will safeguard Hawaii's marine eco-system "for the foreseeable future," protecting over three-thousand square miles of the Pacific Ocean.
RNZ Pacific's Tiana Haxton reports.
