What should we make of James Cameron's claim that there are large areas of the sea bottom that are safe to mine?

It might be possible to establish requirements for sea-bottom mining to be safe for biodiversity. These requirements might include the following

• The mining machines must be robots that quietly use arms to collect metal-bearing rocks.
• The machines must never disturb the bottom, aside from picking up rocks.
• The machines must deposit a replacement rock that wildlife can use in exchange for each metal-bearing rock that they take away. This calls for prior scientific research to verify that certain replacement rocks will enable the wildlife to survive.
• Mining can be authorized only in areas that have been surveyed to prove that they have no special ecosystems.

These or any requirements will not do any good unless they are carefully enforced.

If the mining companies object to these requirements, it will show that they really plan to destroy ecosystems.