The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has revealed that approximately six billion tonnes of sand and sediment are extracted from the world’s seas and oceans annually, warning of dire consequences for biodiversity and coastal communities.
The UNEP’s analytics center, GRID-Geneva, emphasized the alarming environmental impacts of shallow sea mining and dredging, including harm to biodiversity, water turbidity, and noise effects on marine mammals.
To address this issue, the UNEP launched Marine Sand Watch, a global data platform that employs artificial intelligence to monitor dredging activities in marine environments. It uses Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals from ships, combined with AI, to track dredging operations worldwide, including in hotspots like the North Sea and the East Coast of the United States.
According to the platform’s estimates, between four and eight billion tonnes of sand and gravel used by humanity each year come from the world’s oceans and seas. This represents an annual average of six billion tonnes, equivalent to over one million dump trucks every day. Sand is essential for construction, yet it also plays a vital environmental role, protecting coastal communities from rising sea levels.
Data analyzed from 2012 to 2019 indicates that dredging is on the rise, approaching the natural replenishment rate of sediment washed into the oceans (10 to 16 billion tonnes annually). This is particularly concerning in regions with intense dredging where extraction already surpasses the sediment input from land to sea.
While a global tipping point hasn’t been reached, some localities are extracting sand faster than it can replenish itself, posing sustainability challenges. Notably, the North Sea, Southeast Asia, and the East Coast of the United States are hotspots for marine dredging, with significant variations in international practices and regulatory frameworks.
China, the Netherlands, the US, and Belgium have the largest dredging fleets, and these extraction vessels act like giant vacuums, sterilizing seabeds, threatening oceanic microorganisms, and biodiversity. While some countries have banned marine sand export, others lack legislation or monitoring programs. The UNEP’s warning underscores the urgent need for sustainable practices and international cooperation to mitigate the environmental impacts of sediment extraction in marine environments.