Frank Landymore, Futurism

A group of scientists hired by a Canadian firm to monitor its deep sea mining operations was so alarmed by the firm's careless discharging of sediments into the ocean, The Guardian reports, they covertly recorded the dumping and leaked it to the public.

The footage shows sediment streaming out the side of the operation's ship and into the ocean. A closer angle from aboard the vessel reveals the affected water below, where clouds of sediment stir beneath the discolored surface.

In addition, the scientists found that the firm, The Metals Company (TMC), fell short of its own environmental monitoring strategy, alleging that TMC didn't properly consider how plumes of sediment are kicked up from the seabed when mining — something that could have a devastating impact on marine life.

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TMC is one of the biggest players in the industry, and if it's brazen enough to dump waste even when it's under watch, that justifiably raises more questions over what goes on behind the scenes at the company and its competitors.

"We don't know what the consequences of those problems were under the surface of the sea," Catherine Coumans, a research coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, told The Guardian.

"We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg," she added. "We're not getting transparency."

Read the full article here.