Environmental groups renewed calls for a ban on deep sea mining Monday as the International Seabed Authority opened its annual summit in Jamaica. More than two dozen nations attending the talks have called for a moratorium on deep sea mining, which creates massive sediment plumes and can devastate marine ecosystems. In a statement, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition wrote, “The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change.”