#49: Cook Islands part 1: SBM Commissioner Beverly Ataera Explains Seabed Mining Regulations

Beverly Ataera is the Commissioner of the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority, the government body overseeing all seabed mineral activity in one of the most resource-rich ocean territories on Earth. The Cook Islands is 99% water, holds an estimated 12 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules at the bottom of its EEZ, and has been quietly building its regulatory framework for over 12 years — long before COVID, long before Trump's executive orders, and long before deep sea mining became a geopolitical talking point.

The episode gets into the geopolitics, the community conversations, and the remarkable way Beverly talks about scale. When Cook Islanders worry about what mining would actually look like, Beverly's team spent six months working out how to explain it. Beverly also pushes back on the narrative that the Cook Islands is caught in a US-China tug of war: they work with America, Japan, Norway, China, and the British History Museum. Science, she says, is a universal language. Success, when it comes, will come on Cook Islands terms — not anyone else's.

Follow Beverly

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverly-stacey/

Chapters

* 00:00:00 — Introduction

* 00:27:01 — What Makes the Cook Islands Unique

* 03:24:00 — Timeline and History

* 05:56:00 — Current State

* 08:33:00 — Environmental and Commercial Reality Must Align

* 12:10:00 — How Rigorous Regulation Actually Works

* 14:03:00 — Transparency as Trust

* 16:46:00 — Size and Scale

* 21:13:00 — Trump’s Executive Order and Maintaining Independence

* 25:26:00 — The Trade-Off Question: How to Weigh Environmental Risk Against Economic Benefit

* 30:39:00 — Economic Resilience, Healthcare, and Why Cook Islands Won’t Rush

* 34:48:00 — Infrastructure and Opportunity

* 36:24:00 — Final Framing

Resources Mentioned

* Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority: sbma.gov.ck

* IBOSS (Institute of Blue ocean Sustainability and Science: pmoffice.gov.ck

* Tiz: local Cook Islands NGO (search via SBMA website for contact)

* Oceans Ancestors: local Cook Islands NGO

* Maui Collective: Hawaiian cultural heritage group active at ISA meetings

* Marae Moana — Cook Islands Marine Protected Area: sbma.gov.ck

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tradingoff.substack.com/subscribe