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Maori fishing interests will breath a sigh of relief the Environmental Protection Authority has rejected an application for seabed mining off the coast of Canterbury.
It concluded the proposed Chatham Rock Phosphate operation on the Chatham Rise would cause "significant and permanent adverse effects" on the seabed.
The area includes potentially unique stony corals, and the extraction of 1.5 million tonnes of phosphorite nodules a year would also create a huge amount of sediment.
The committee considered the economic benefit to New Zealand of the proposal would be modest at best, despite the company’s claim it would improve the current account by reducing fertiliser imports.
The Chatham Rise east of Christchurch is home to orange roughy and other deepwater quota species.
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