Deep-Sea Mining Watch is an initiative of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The platform is powered by Global Fishing Watch’s Open Ocean Project, utilizing publicly available data of vessels engaging in seabed mineral-related activities.

The deep-sea mining portal will advance transparency by continuously mapping and monitoring vessels involved in deep-sea mining and providing data and insights to help stakeholders assess potential impacts on fisheries and the marine environment.

Through Deep-Sea Mining Watch, users can access publicly available data that tracks and visualizes vessel activity linked to deep-sea mineral-related activities. The portal maps the movements of vessels operating in areas licensed by the International Seabed Authority, which currently cover more than 1.5 million square kilometers of the international seabed, as well as in areas of mineral interest in national waters or the extended continental shelf, a portion of a coastal nation's continental shelf that extends beyond 200 nautical miles from its coast. By drawing on automatic identification system (AIS) signals transmitted by vessels, the portal provides heatmaps and activity layers that can help stakeholders understand when and where vessels are engaged in mineral-related activities. These may include deep-sea mineral prospecting, environmental baseline studies or the testing of mining equipment. The portal provides credible, science-based data to support oversight, research, and public awareness.

Deep-Sea Mining Watch builds directly on the technology and methods pioneered by Global Fishing Watch to monitor global fishing activity. Just as Global Fishing Watch uses automatic identification system (AIS) to track fishing and carrier vessels, the deep-sea mining portal applies similar approaches to a different set of vessels that are potentially engaged in mineral-related activities.