Short abstract:

Oceanic futures emerge from scientific relationships with the DSM sediment discharge plume. Combining anthropology with STS studies, I show how this mining waste is produced and 'seen' in a multispecies dialogue.

Long abstract:

The underwater, akin to the underground, emerges through interconnected political, economic, cultural, and technoscientific processes (Kinchy, Phadke, Smith, 2018). Understanding how the knowledge production of engineers and scientists intersects with political decision-making about deep-sea mining (DSM) is critical for exploring oceanic future scenarios. This paper focuses on the sediment plume (the "discharge plume"): a mid-water cloud consisting of a mixture of dissolved metals and suspended particulates, generated by DSM surface vessel operations. Thinking about the past and future of the ocean requires attention to this material waste.

Combining the anthropological approach with STS studies is crucial to exploring how scientists "see" sediment plumes, both in terms of observing the underwater world through robotic eyes and "interpreting" this intangible and fluid material as either "waste" or "harmless disorder". This exploration reveals how the DSM's "social license to operate" is constructed through a specific process of dialogue with non-humans (ROVs, seafloor sediments, benthic currents, etc.). Indeed, the concentration of the sediment plume depends on the design of the ROVs used to collect the nodules, as well as the specific marine area in which the operations are carried out. Rather than focusing on the monstrosity of the underwater robots, this paper endeavors to explore the multiple entanglements associated with DSM underwater waste, assigning to the sediment plume an "analytical and ethnopolitical space" and its "right to exist" (Ureta, Flores, 2022: 10).