The seabed in the high seas is managed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a little-known United Nations entity established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The ISA oversees the management of the seabed in the high seas, which accounts for more than 50% of the Earth's surface.

Under UNCLOS, the seabed is designated: “the common heritage of (hu)mankind”, meaning it belongs to humanity as a whole and to future generations.

The ISA is an intergovernmental body, located in Kingston, Jamaica, comprising 167 member states and the European Union. It was established in 1994 when The United Nation Convention of the Law Of the Sea (UNCLOS) was ratified. Its purpose is to oversee seabed activities in international waters.

Under UNCLOS (which was drafted in 1982 and ratified in 1994) the ISA’s stated mandate is two-fold and contradictory: to regulate seabed mining activities to benefit all of humanity and to protect the marine environment. The ISA is quite unique among UN-affiliated organizations in several ways. It operates independently with its own Secretary-General, unlike most other UN bodies which report to the UN Secretary General in New York. This separation has led to concerns and controversy about the ISA’s accountability and governance and its conflicting mandate to both protect the marine environment and explore and promote mining activities.

‘The World's Largest Ocean Dispute’ is the impact campaign for Deep Rising. The campaign seeks to prevent seabed mining before it begins by uniting humanity to protect the deep seabed from this emerging threat.

Through an innovative digital platform at deeprising.com, the campaign raises awareness about the critical environmental importance of the deep ocean floor, emphasizing that the seabed is the largest living space on Earth and plays a vital role in stabilizing the planet's climate.

The campaign also highlights that the seabed in the high seas is the common heritage of humankind under UN law of the Sea, meaning it belongs to all of humanity, including future generations.

By leveraging web3 technology and a CO2-positive blockchain, the campaign empowers individuals to freely reclaim a piece of the deep seabed in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) as their birthright—not for ownership or profit, but for stewardship and the protection of our shared environmental legacy.

‘The World’s Largest Ocean Dispute’ has divided the CCZ into 8.17 billion tokens, each representing a person on Earth. When someone digitally reclaims the seabed (for free), their token transforms into a unique Birthright Certificate in the form of a DEEPSEA NFT. Each NFT is stamped with a set of unique coordinates in the CCZ and features imagery of one of the 14 "unsung heroes" of the deep ocean—lifeforms that thrive in the dark depths of the ocean and are crucial to ocean and planetary health. These lifeforms, mostly unseen, represent the millions of known and unknown species in the deep ocean.

Available in 90 languages, including many Indigenous and First Nation languages, these NFTs symbolize a collective commitment to protect humanity’s hidden heritage.

Whether or not an individual reclaims their token, it still exists for them, representing the deep seabed's status as the common heritage of humankind. Every time someone reclaims the deep seabed, they do so on behalf of humanity and future generations, underscoring our shared global responsibility to protect this irreplaceable ecosystem.

This campaign also supports education, awareness, advocacy, and legislative change to safeguard the deep seabed for generations to come.

Together with our web3 partner, Coinweb, we will mint the NFTs onto the MultiversX blockchain, a blockchain recognized for its minimal ecological footprint.

Unlike blockchains like Bitcoin that use proof of work protocols, which has a significant carbon footprint (around 300kg of CO2 per transaction), MultversX's proof of stake energy consumption is dramatically lower, at just 0.04 grams of CO2 per transaction. To put this in perspective, a single Google search generates approximately 0.2 grams of CO2, meaning one NFT has a carbon footprint five times lower than just one search. Additionally, boiling a kettle for a cup of tea emits about 15 grams of CO2.

Additionally, the MultiversX has a CO2-positive footprint, offsetting more carbon than it produces. This blockchain, combined with a Proof of Stake mechanism, minimizes environmental impact, further aligning with the campaign’s sustainable goals.

Moreover, we are employing an efficient process called Merkelization to tokenize 8.17 billion unique GPS coordinates (symbolizing all of humanity). This approach minimizes blockchain transactions, ensuring an exceptionally low carbon footprint—potentially just a few grams of CO₂.

These GPS coordinates, totalling around 2.5 GB, are securely stored on Google Cloud. To put this into perspective, watching a 2-hour Netflix film in 4K uses approximately 14 GB, nearly six times the storage required for our data.

At the core of our initiative is a commitment to transparency and accountability through data-driven solutions. By using blockchain technology, all claims will be recorded permanently on decentralized servers, ensuring that no central authority can manipulate or obscure the data. With our NFTs stored using peer-to-peer protocol on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), the information will be distributed across millions of computers, making it virtually impossible to erase or alter.

This campaign goes beyond a petition. We’re uniting people worldwide in a symbolic reclamation of the deep seabed, using blockchain technology to ensure each participant’s unique contribution is permanently recorded. This decentralized and transparent approach allows us to create a lasting record of global support for protecting the deep seabed. Each DeepSea NFT, representing a unique GPS coordinate in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, symbolizes a personal connection to this shared heritage and stands as proof of our commitment to defend it for future generations.

The campaign will culminate in an intervention at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) General Assembly in July 2025. Here, we will bring this movement’s message forward on behalf of all who’ve joined, demanding that the ISA honor Article 136 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This article designates the seabed beyond national jurisdiction as the common heritage of humankind—a principle of international law that mandates these areas be held in trust for the benefit of all humanity and protected from exploitation.

By leveraging blockchain, we ensure the transparency and permanence of every individual’s participation, creating compelling evidence that humanity supports upholding this mandate. Together, we are giving humanity a voice in the room, calling on the ISA to fulfill its duty to safeguard this irreplaceable shared heritage for us and for future generations.

Many countries and organizations, including NGOs like Greenpeace, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and Sustainable Ocean Alliance have been advocating for a moratorium on deep sea mining for many years. Additionally a growing number of nations (32 to date) including France, Spain, UK and Germany, along with many Pacific Island nations, like Palau, Fiji, and Vanuatu, have called for a pause or ban on mining as we do not have the research to understand the long-term environmental consequences on the planet. Given the first area earmarked for mining is a vast expanse of seafloor in the Pacific – where small island nations are already on the frontline of climate change – this is not just an environmental issue, but also a human rights issue. The Deep Rising documentary and ‘The World's Largest Ocean Dispute’ campaign are working to help raise awareness of these issues and to generate public opposition to deep sea mining to help stop this needless destruction before it starts.

As of the last ISA General Assembly in July 2024, the number of countries opposing deep sea mining increased by nearly 20% to a total of 32 nations. This growing coalition includes Palau, Fiji, Vanuatu, Costa Rica, Brazil, Chile, Malta, Tuvalu, France, UK, Germany, Spain and many others. The opposition is now particularly strong among Pacific Island nations, which are advocating for the protection of the ocean seabed due to environmental impact and lack of comprehensive research into these impacts on ocean health and human health.

As of July 2024, the number of Pacific Islands that oppose DSM outnumber those in favor of it or are neutral on the subject.

The ocean is one interconnected ecosystem and the Pacific Island nations opposed to DSM argue that if mining commences in the Pacific this could negatively impact their island homes, cultures, economies, and way of life, as well as potentially speeding up climate change.